InterContinental share price: First-quarter results out

InterContinental Hotels Group (LON:IHG) has this morning released its first-quarter results. InterContinental’s share price closed 0.07 percent higher at 2,759p in London yesterday.

**Highlights from InterContinental’s statement:**
· Global Q1 comparable RevPAR up 5.9%[1], driven by rate up 3.4% and growth in all four regions.
· Increasing our global scale: net system size of 723k rooms, up 4.9% year on year (3.3% excluding Kimpton); 14k rooms signed into our 201k room pipeline, highest Q1 hotel signings in seven years.
· Continued growth of our industry-leading boutique hotel brands with strong US RevPAR performance and an expanding global presence.
· Strategic relationship with Amadeus to revolutionise the technological foundations of the global hospitality industry and develop a next generation Guest Reservation System.
Richard Solomons, Chief Executive of InterContinental Hotels Group PLC, said:
“We have made a strong start to the year, executing against our winning strategy to deliver RevPAR growth of 5.9%. We achieved our highest first quarter for hotel signings in seven years, and openings in five years, demonstrating the continued momentum behind both our established and new brands.
Holiday Inn continues to go from strength to strength, opening in its 75th country, and delivering the highest number of first quarter hotel signings since 2008. Our industry-leading boutique brands are performing strongly, with high single digit RevPAR growth in the US and a growing geographical distribution. We opened Hotel Indigo in two new markets, opened three Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants and signed a further four, as we start to leverage our scale, growing the brand’s room count by almost 5% in the two months since acquisition.
We continue to lead the industry with our focus on innovation in technology, and through our strategic relationship with Amadeus we will develop the hotel industry’s first cloud-based Guest Reservation System. It will enable us to shape the future foundations of our sector and allows us to concentrate on our own bespoke platforms, as we accelerate our work to revolutionise and personalise the guest experience through digital technology.
With our current trading performance and the strong momentum behind our brands we remain confident that our winning strategy will continue to deliver sustainable high quality growth.”
As of 07:11 BST, Friday, 08 May, InterContinental Hotels Group PLC share price is 2,759.00p.