IHG growth reined in by terror attacks

INTERCONTINENTAL Hotels, the FTSE 100 hotels giant behind Holiday Inn, says terror attacks contributed to a drop in sales growth between July and September.

IHG’s revenues-per-available-room (Revpar), a measure of performance used in the hotel industry, increased by just 1.3pc in the three months to September 30, slowing from the 2.5pc revpar it reported in the previous quarter between April and June.

The company said that “ongoing challenging trading conditions in France, Turkey and Belgium” – which have all been hit terror attacks that have deterred travellers in recent months – resulted in “signifi- cant” falls in revpar in those countries.

Richard Solomons, Inter-Continental’s boss, insisted that “despite the uncertain environment in some markets, we remain confident in the outlook for the remainder of the year”.

IHG also said that it is well placed to benefit from the pound’s plunge following the EU referendum.

The company, which gets 5pc of its sales from the UK but says half its overhead costs are in sterling, said currency changes would “impact on 2016 reported profit”. It said operating profits for the second half of 2015 would have been $9m (£7.3m) higher, had current exchange rates applied.

IHG shares fell 2pc yesterday to £31.60.