Elie Maalouf, Chief Executive Officer, IHG Hotels & Resorts, comments: "RevPAR growth accelerated in Q4, reflecting the breadth of our global footprint and improvements in all three regions. Together with strong system growth, notable margin expansion and the benefit of returning surplus capital through buybacks, we're pleased to report adjusted EPS growth for the year of +15%."
"Strong demand globally from hotel owners and developers for our brands drove the opening of 371 hotels and an impressive 714 properties signed into our pipeline, equivalent to almost two a day. The 106,000 rooms signed were +34% more than the previous year. Our global estate now stands at over 6,600 hotels, and momentum continued into 2025 with the recent celebration of our 800th opening in Greater China. Our global pipeline increased +10% to over 2,200 hotels, representing future system size growth of +33%."
The latest news published three days ago is the acquisition of the Ruby brand (see our Breaking News/Related Article): "This acquisition demonstrates our focus on building our presence in large … The urban micro space is a franchise-friendly model with attractive owner economics, and we see excellent opportunities to not only expand Ruby’s strong European base but also rapidly take this exciting brand to the Americas and across Asia, as we have successfully done with previous brand acquisitions", said Maalouf.
The CEO is "pleased to propose another 10% increase in the dividend, and the launch today of a new $900m share buyback programme. We enter 2025 with confidence in further capitalising on our scale, leading positions and the attractive long-term demand drivers for our markets, all of which supports the ongoing successful delivery of our growth algorithm."
Highlights
Trading and revenue
- Global RevPAR1 +3.0% (Q4 +4.6%), Americas +2.5% (Q4 +4.6%), EMEAA +6.6% (Q4 +6.9%) and Greater China -4.8% (Q4 -2.8%); US RevPAR +1.7%, accelerating from +0.6% in H1 to +2.6% in H2 (Q4 +4.1%)
- Average daily rate +2.1%, occupancy +0.6%pts
- Total gross revenue1 $33.4bn, +6%
System size and pipeline
- Gross system growth +6.2%; net system growth +4.3%
- Opened 59.1k rooms (371 hotels), +23% YOY; global estate of 987k rooms (6,629 hotels)
- Signed 106.2k rooms (714 hotels), +34% YOY; new build signings +3% YOY, conversions +88% YOY; global pipeline of 325k rooms (2,210 hotels), +10% YOY
- Opened 23.6k rooms (147 hotels) in Q4, +23% YOY and the second-largest ever quarter of openings
- Signed 30.0k rooms (201 hotels) in Q4, +6% YOY and also one of the largest quarters of signings
Margin and profit
- Fee margin1 61.2%, up +1.9%pts, driven by strong trading together with new and growing ancillary fee streams
- Operating profit from reportable segments1 of $1,124m, up +10.3%, includes a $16m adverse currency impact
- IFRS operating profit of $1,041m includes System Fund and reimbursables loss of $83m (2023: $19m profit) driven by the planned reduction of prior System Fund surplus noted in the first half of the year, and net $nil exceptional items (2023: $28m exceptional profit)
- Adjusted EPS1 of 432.4¢, up +15.1%, includes adjusted interest expense1 of $165m (2023: $131m), an adjusted tax1 rate of 27% (2023: 28%) and a 4.6% reduction in the basic weighted average number of ordinary shares
Cash flow and net debt
- Net cash from operating activities of $724m (2023: $893m) and adjusted free cash flow1 of $655m (2023: $837m), with the decrease driven by the planned higher spend in the System Fund
- Net debt1 increase of $510m reflects over $1.0bn of shareholder returns through dividend payments and share buybacks; $3m foreign exchange adverse impact on net debt
- Adjusted EBITDA1 of $1,189m, +9.5%; net debt:adjusted EBITDA ratio of 2.3x
Shareholder returns
- $800m share buyback programme completed and $259m of ordinary dividends paid to shareholders in 2024
- Final dividend of 114.4¢ proposed, +10%, resulting in a total dividend for the year of 167.6¢, +10%
- New $900m buyback programme launched, which together with ordinary dividend payments is expected to return over $1.1bn to shareholders in 2025
- Strong delivery on our clear framework to drive value creation set out in February 2024. / red
Further details on the results for the full year 2024 can be found on the IHG website.
