{"id":35347,"date":"2023-05-05T09:21:28","date_gmt":"2023-05-05T09:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/holiday-inn-owner-ihgs-ceo\/"},"modified":"2023-05-05T09:23:51","modified_gmt":"2023-05-05T09:23:51","slug":"ihg-boss-to-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/ihg-boss-to-step\/","title":{"rendered":"IHG boss to step down as Holiday Inn-owner sees China rebound"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Eva Mathews and Radhika Anilkumar<\/p>\n

(Reuters) – IHG Plc Chief Executive Keith Barr will step down next month after six years at the helm, the Holiday Inn-owner said on Friday, sending its shares down despite strong first-quarter results driven by a rebound in Chinese demand.<\/p>\n

The 52 year-old American plans to return to his family in the United States, IHG said, adding he would be succeeded by Americas head Elie Maalouf. <\/p>\n

IHG stock was down 2.8% to 5,364 pence at 0840 GMT. <\/p>\n

Barr ran the company’s Chinese business for several years and became CEO in 2017 at a time when online rental companies such as Airbnb had started to capture market share.<\/p>\n

“Keith had done a strong job invigorating the brand portfolio and improving the loyalty and digital offering,” Bernstein analysts said. <\/p>\n

Shares in the Crowne Plaza-owner IHG have risen about 29% under Barr’s leadership. <\/p>\n

Maalouf, 59, will take over a business returning towards pre-pandemic levels of growth, but with an uncertain economic outlook weighing on consumer-focused industries. <\/p>\n

Some relief was seen in early 2023, however, after China lifted its COVID curbs in December. <\/p>\n

IHG said first-quarter revenue per available room (RevPAR) – a key measure of the industry’s top-line performance – jumped 33%, fuelled by a 75% increase in the Greater China region.<\/p>\n

U.S. peers Hilton and Marriott International Inc have also benefited from China’s rebound and pent-up travel demand. <\/p>\n

Still, when compared to 2019, IHG’s group RevPAR for the quarter rose 6.8%, while Chinese RevPAR was down 9%. <\/p>\n

\n

GRAPHIC: IHG’s China business moves closer to pre-pandemic levels https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/graphics\/IHG-CHINA\/dwvkdyarlpm\/chart_eikon.jpg<\/p>\n

\n

Through the year, travel demand from small and medium businesses and during summer will drive growth, Barr said in an interview.<\/p>\n

Airlines across the world are also seeing strong ticket sales for summer travel, with consumers prioritising travel spend despite high inflation.<\/p>\n

On a slowdown in commercial real estate lending, Barr said IHG expected it would “normalise over time.”<\/p>\n

\n

(Reporting by Radhika Anilkumar and Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Conor Humphries and Mark Potter)<\/p>\n

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By Eva Mathews and Radhika Anilkumar (Reuters) – IHG Plc Chief Executive Keith Barr will step down next month after six years at the helm, the Holiday Inn-owner said on Friday, sending its shares down despite strong first-quarter results driven by a rebound in Chinese demand. The 52 year-old American plans to return to his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":35348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1213],"tags":[1223],"class_list":["post-35347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-business","tag-updated"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ4404N-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35347"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35512,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35347\/revisions\/35512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}