InterContinental Hotels Group

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InterContinental Hotels Group

Type	Public (LSE: IHG NYSE: IHG)
Founded	15 April 2003 Origins trace back to 1777
Headquarters	Windsor, England, UK
Key people	David Webster, Chairman Andrew Cosslett, Chief Executive RIchard Hartman, EMEA
Industry	Hotel
Products	Brands include: InterContinental Crowne Plaza Holiday Inn
Revenue	£960m GBP (2006)
Operating income	£258m GBP (2006)
Net income	£405m GBP (2006)
Website	Corporate website

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (IHG) (LSE: IHG NYSE: IHG) is a multinational company which operates several hotel brands. It is the largest hotel company by number of rooms (556,000 as of March 2007 [1]), and is headquartered in Windsor just outside Greater London. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

1 Business model
2 History
3 InterContinental brands
4 External links

IHG is primarily engaged in managing hotels owned by other parties and in franchising its hotel brands. That is, it sells its expertise in hotel management, systems, and marketing, while leaving investment in real property, which is far more capital intensive, requires different skills, and has a different risk profile, primarily to its partners. This is not an unusual arrangement in the hotel industry. As of 2007 it franchises over 3,200 hotels, manages over 510 and owns only 24. [2] The owned hotels do however include many of the key properties of company's flagship InterContinental brand.

InterContinental Hotels Group can be traced back to 1777 when William Bass began a brewery in Burton-upon-Trent. In 1876 their red triangle trademark was the first registered in the United Kingdom.

In 1989 the British Government limited the number of pubs brewers could directly own, so Bass began to grow their small line of hotels. In 1990 they purchased Holiday Inn International from Kemmons Wilson, expanding themselves into North America. In March 1998 they acquired the InterContinental brand, expanding into the luxury market.

In 2000 the company sold its brewing assets (and the rights to the Bass name) to the major Belgian brewer Interbrew for £2.3 billion and changed its name to Six Continents PLC. IHG was created in 2003 after Six Continents PLC split into two daughter companies: Mitchells and Butlers PLC, to handle restaurant assets and IHG to focus on hotels and soft drinks. Britvic, the company's soft drinks division, was retained by IHG until December 2005, when IHG sold its interest in the company by an initial public offering.