Shareholders set for £450m IHG bonus

INTERCONTINENTAL Hotels, owner of the Holiday Inn chain, watched shares rise after announcing plans to hand £444m to investors and sell more hotels.

The hotel giant issued a buoyant first-quarter update, as revenue per available room – the industry’s key measure of success – rose by 6pc, with the UK proving the strongest major market.

The increase was the strongest that IHG, which also runs the Crowne Plaza brand, has seen in seven quarters. IHG rewarded shareholders with a special dividend worth £444m.

The windfall is partly funded by a string of hotel sales this year, including the £301.5m disposal of the well-known InterContinental Park Lane in London.

IHG also raised some £233m via the sale of the InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco hotel and an 80pc interest in InterContinental New York Barclay. Shares in IHG climbed 166p to 2190p after the chain said it was considering ‘opportunities for further asset disposals’.

The statement sparked hopes of further returns to shareholders by IHG, which has handed investors £6.1bn since 2003.

Chief executive Richard Solomons said IHG was ‘committed to returning surplus funds to shareholders’.

He said selling more hotels was likely to prove easy, given ‘the strength of the global demand for prime hotel assets’.