Bulletin: InterContinental's Subdued Q3 U.S. Revenue Per Available Room And Planned $500 Mil. Special Dividend Are Credit Neutral

LONDON (S&P Global Ratings) Oct. 26, 2018--S&P Global Ratings said today that, despite InterContinental Hotels Group PLC's (IHG; BBB/Stable/--) soft third-quarter (Q3) 2018 revenue per available room (RevPAR) in the U.S. and announced $500 million special dividend, it expects IHG's credit measures and performance will remain commensurate with the rating. The special dividend (with share consolidation) will be paid in first-quarter 2019 and we expect it to be partly funded with debt. The lower-than-expected U.S. RevPAR growth figure stemmed mainly from comparison with the strong Q3 2017, which benefitted from the redirection of demand after hurricanes Harvey and Irma in August and September that year. As a result, IHG's U.S. RevPAR in Q3 2018 was down 0.5% year on year,

...LONDON (S&P Global Ratings) Oct. 26, 2018--S&P Global Ratings said today that, despite InterContinental Hotels Group PLC's (IHG; ###/Stable/--) soft third-quarter (Q3) 2018 revenue per available room (RevPAR) in the U.S. and announced $500 million special dividend, it expects IHG's credit measures and performance will remain commensurate with the rating. The special dividend (with share consolidation) will be paid in first-quarter 2019 and we expect it to be partly funded with debt. The lower-than-expected U.S. RevPAR growth figure stemmed mainly from comparison with the strong Q3 2017, which benefitted from the redirection of demand after hurricanes Harvey and Irma in August and September that year. As a result, IHG's U.S. RevPAR in Q3 2018 was down 0.5% year on year, compared with the industry's average growth of 1.7%. However, IHG's global nine-month 2018 RevPAR was up 2.7%, and we still expect low-single-digit RevPAR growth to be attainable for the full year of 2018. Furthermore, we...

Bulletin