IHG capitalises on scale to deliver strong first-half results
The results released this week reveal that, for the six months ending June 30, operating profit from reportable segments increased 10% to US$665 million, while adjusted earnings per share climbed 13% to 274.7 cents. Revenue from reportable segments rose 7% to US$1.255 billion, supported by continued growth across its fee-based business.
The hotel giant delivered a global RevPAR growth of 4.1% during the period, led by the Americas, where RevPAR increased 4.8%. Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa (EMEAA) recorded growth of 3.0%, while Greater China was up 3.1%. Average daily rate increased 2.5%, and occupancy improved by one percentage point, according to the latest results.
IHG’s development soared to a record 31,500 rooms across 197 hotels during the half year, and excluding the Ruby brand acquisition completed in 2025, openings were up 8% year-on-year.
The group signed a further 49,200 rooms across 352 hotels, also representing 8% organic growth, taking its global pipeline to 348,000 rooms across 2,385 hotels. The pipeline now represents 33% of IHG’s existing estate, which stands at more than 1.04 million rooms across 7,109 hotels worldwide.
Fee margin improved by 1.2 percentage points to 65.9%, reflecting fee business revenue growth of 7%, which outpaced cost growth of 4%.
The company said it remains on track to return more than US$1.2 billion to shareholders in 2026. A US$950 million share buyback programme is already 42% complete, while the interim dividend increased 10% to 64.5 cents per share.
Commenting on the results, IHG Hotels and Resorts Chief Executive Officer, Elie Maalouf, 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%.
“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.”
Maalouf said the company is expected to “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.”