Holiday Inn owner dishes out bumper shareholder payouts as travel rebounds

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10th August 2022

Bite-sized business news from the UK and beyond

Good morning Good news for those of us who like to use WhatsApp without anyone knowing. Yesterday owner Meta announced that users will be able to leave group chats silently, control who can see their online status and block screenshots on View Once messages. It will begin rolling out the features this month, highlighting them in a global campaign, starting in the UK.

Today's stories

Holiday Inn owner dishes out bumper shareholder payouts as travel rebounds
Government backed startup teeters on the brink of collapse

TRAVEL
Holiday Inn owner dishes out bumper shareholder payouts as travel rebounds

What happened?
Yesterday InterContinental Hotels Group, the owner of Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza hotel chains, announced it would return more than $500m to shareholders after a strong recovery in travel bookings.

How did we get here?
IHG is one of the world’s largest hotel groups with 17 brands and 6,000 hotel rooms and like the rest of the travel industry has been hit hard by the pandemic. But in the six months to June the FTSE 100 company reported revenues of $1.8bn, up 52% on the previous year. The strong performance was driven by higher room prices, the return of leisure travellers and a recovery in business travel, especially in the Americas.

Revenues from the group’s budget hotel chains recovered faster from the pandemic than more premium brands.

Profits more than doubled to $361m which gave IHG the confidence to announce it would buyback $500m of shares and restart paying a dividend for the first time since 2019.

Looking ahead: There are growing concerns that the global economy will tip into a recession soon and typically travel is one of the most impacted sectors when economic activity slows. However IHG is confident that is in a good position to withstand a downturn due to its strong brands and continued demand for travel after two years of a pandemic.

CEO Keith Barr noted that “There’s a slowdown in people buying big ticket electrical items, but not a slowdown in travel spending.”

Other stories to keep you in the loop

Energy bills set to hit £4,200 in January
Royal Mail staff to stage four-day strike action
Retail sales boosted by warm weather but inflation worries loom
City workers get double-digit wage rises while lowest-paid see 1% increase
John Lewis boss: Over-50s quitting the workforce fuels inflation
Thames Water to announce hosepipe ban affecting 15,000,000 people
News Corp almost doubles its profits on back of digital advertising and subscribers
PureGym founder backs start-up personal training app
Ralph Lauren sales grow as shoppers stick with designer brands
Elon Musk sells $7bn in Tesla stock amid Twitter takeover dispute

STARTUP
Government backed startup teeters on the brink of collapse

London based events startup Pollen could go bust this week just months after raising $150m in funding from some of the biggest European investors, according to Sky News.

Founded in 2014, Pollen organises concerts and experiences around the world involving artists like Justin Bieber. It was hit hard by the pandemic as it was forced to cancel events and refund tickets.

The company is backed the Future Fund, a government scheme to support mostly early-stage British firms with investments ranging from £125,000 to £5m.

Pollen has had a rollercoaster few months. In April it announced a huge $150m fundraising then in May it sacked 22% of its workforce. In June it missed payroll as it worked to secure new funding, potentially in the form of a sale and drafted in Goldman Sachs to find a buyer.

It’s the latest company backed by the Future Fund to fall into trouble. Earlier this week the Financial Times revealed that the fund – worth £1.1bn – had invested in companies with limited chance of growth to a sufficient scale for success and would therefore become “zombie businesses”.

Stat of the day

The average term of a UK mortgage taken out in June hit a record 30 years, that compares with 25.5 years in 2005

Interesting links from around the web

Love sleeping? Get paid to nap
How to have a really good argument
The top ‘travel-inspired’ baby names

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