Intercontinental Hotels Group Plc reports stronger half-year profit and raises shareholder return outlook

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (LON:IHG) has announced its Half Year Results to 30 June 2026

Strong performance with operating profit from reportable segments1 +10% and Adjusted EPS1 +13%; record development activity, with openings and signings both up +8% on an organic basis; on track to return $1.2bn+ to shareholders; compelling long-term growth drivers

1.         Definitions for non-GAAP measures can be found in the ‘Key performance measures and non-GAAP measures’ section, along with reconciliations of these measures to the most directly comparable line items within the Financial Statements.

Trading and revenue

●    H1 Global RevPAR¹ +4.1%, with Americas +4.8%, EMEAA +3.0% and Greater China +3.1%

●    Average daily rate +2.5%, occupancy +1.0%pts

●    Total gross revenue¹ $18.2bn, +7% at constant currency

System size and pipeline

●    Gross system growth +6.5% YOY and net system growth of +5.0% YOY

●    Opened 31.5k rooms (197 hotels), a record level, and up +8% YOY when excluding the Ruby brand acquisition in 2025

●    Global estate of 1,049k rooms (7,109 hotels)

●    Signed 49.2k rooms (352 hotels), also up +8% YOY on an organic basis

●    Global pipeline of 348k rooms (2,385 hotels), up +3% YOY, and represents 33% of current system size

Margin and profit

●    Fee margin¹ 65.9%, up +1.2%pts, with fee business revenue¹ growth of +7% exceeding cost growth of +4%

●    Operating profit from reportable segments¹ of $665m, up +10%, after the impact of $5m insurance-related expense on a fire‑damaged leased hotel, and $6m net benefit from the YOY movement in average currency rates

●    IFRS operating profit of $671m includes System Fund and reimbursables $9m profit (2025: $31m profit) and $3m exceptional costs (2025: $12m)

●    Adjusted EPS¹ of 274.7¢, up +13%, includes adjusted interest expense¹ of $106m (2025: $91m), an adjusted tax¹ rate of 26% (2025: 26%) and a 4.0% reduction in the basic weighted average number of ordinary shares

●    IFRS basic EPS includes foreign exchange losses of $7m (2025: gains of $79m) predominantly due to translation of intra-group monetary assets and liabilities held between subsidiaries with differing functional currencies

Cash flow and net debt

●    Net cash from operating activities of $355m (2025: $312m) and adjusted free cash flow¹ of $360m (2025: $302m), driven by the increase in profit

●    Net debt¹ increase of $330m since the start of the year, driven by $564m related to shareholder returns through dividend payments and share buybacks; $11m foreign exchange net favourable impact on net debt

●     Trailing 12-month Adjusted EBITDA¹ of $1,392m, +11% YOY; net debt:adjusted EBITDA ratio of 2.63x

Shareholder returns

●     $950m share buyback programme for 2026, 42% completed as at 30 June; interim dividend +10% to 64.5¢

●    On track to return $1.2bn+ to shareholders in 2026, equivalent to 5.8% of market capitalisation at start of year

Elie Maalouf, Chief Executive Officer, IHG Hotels & Resorts, said: “Our diverse global footprint and better-than-expected demand in most markets around the world delivered strong RevPAR growth of +4.1% in the first six months of 2026. Trading in the US accelerated in the second quarter, growth in Greater China continued and a good performance elsewhere in our EMEAA region helped offset challenges in the Middle East. This robust revenue growth, combined with an acceleration in net system growth, an efficient cost base driving further margin expansion and the ongoing return of surplus capital to shareholders, delivered adjusted EPS growth of +13%.

We had record levels of development activity with almost 200 hotel openings in the first half. This drove net system growth of 5% and expanded our global estate to 7,100 hotels. Our pipeline grew to 2,400 hotels with increases in all three regions and 352 signings in total – almost two a day – representing +8% growth year-on-year.

Thanks to the hard work of our teams, we’re making excellent progress on growing our brands, expanding in key geographic markets, developing our leading technology and enterprise platform, and driving ancillary fee streams. While there are ongoing impacts from the Middle East conflict, including some wider disruption to international travel flows, we continue to expect these to be fully offset by growth in demand elsewhere. This demonstrates the strength of IHG’s business model which is strategically diversified and resilient, with our ability to capture demand across geographies, chainscales and the different stay occasions of business, leisure and groups travel, as well as being heavily weighted to domestic and intra-regional travel.

We remain on track to meet full year consensus profit and earnings expectations. We are also confident in the successful delivery of our growth algorithm, which is driven by the strength of IHG’s enterprise platform and our ability to further capitalise on our scale, leading positions and the attractive long-term demand drivers for our markets.”

Presentation for analysts and institutional shareholders:

A pre-recorded webcast presented by Elie Maalouf, Chief Executive Officer, and Michael Glover, Chief Financial Officer, will be available from 7:00am (London time) today, 11 August 2026, at www.ihgplc.com/en/investors/results-and-presentations. This same website link also provides access to the full release and supplementary information pack covering RevPAR, system size and pipeline data.

A live Q&A session will be hosted later this morning at 9:30am (London time). This can be listened to via www.ihgplc.com/en/investors/results-and-presentations (pre-registration required). Analysts and institutional investors wishing to ask questions are required to register at the IHG Hotels & Resorts Half Year 2026 Results Live Q&A Registration Page (https://registrations.events/direct/LON6705197). Dial-in details for the Q&A are provided when you register and will appear in the calendar invite sent to you following registration.

An archived replay including the Q&A session is expected to be available within 24 hours and will remain available at www.ihgplc.com/en/investors/results-and-presentations.