Name: Richard Solomons Position: CEO Company: Intercontinental Hotels Group Date: 21/1/2014 Time: 17:41 CET Channel: CNBC in Europe Duration: 5 mins 06 secs

Interview with Richard Solomons

Richard Solomons We've just opened this fantastic Intercontinental here, which literally opened December last year. So it's an opportunity to be here. We've just done our tenth anniversary as a standalone independent company. So it seemed like a good opportunity to come to help celebrate this hotel and I think for me as I look at it today, there's just so many people here who it's going to be helpful and beneficial to meet. We've got a series of meetings organised. There's some great events, great seminars, so I'm here to listen and learn I think a little bit. And I'm sure I'll be here in future years but we'll see how it goes this year.

Heila Ebrahimi This hotel has an incredible view, but you're a bit far away from the main event. Is that going to be a risk going forward? Do you think you're going to steal traffic from people like the Belvedere?

Richard Solomons We already have. This hotel's made a very big statement very early on and we've got some outstanding guests staying here and some big parties. I wouldn't say it's a little too far away. It's a little away from the hustle and bustle but I think for a facility like this, a luxury hotel it's not just about the week of World Economic Forum, it's about skiing business, it's about the summer business and getting out of the hustle and bustle is not a bad thing sometimes.

Heila Ebrahimi IHG, you've got 9 brands, you've got 4,600 hotels, 5% of the world market. Can I talk to you a little bit about 2 of the trends? The first is kind of the global markets. In China you guys were ahead of the game. I think you started your first you know nearly 30 years ago.

Richard Solomons 1984.

Heila Ebrahimi A long time ago. What does that market look like on a RevPar basis 2013? It looked weaker than Europe. Is that because of a clampdown by Chinese government?

Richard Solomons It's a number of things. It's partly of new supply and, you know, about 30% of our future pipeline is actually in China, so we're getting way ahead of our likely or our fair share of supply as it were. So actually even though RevPar, as you say, Revenue Per Room has been relatively flat, partly due to demand being a bit lower, partly due to supply growing, we've grown our revenues quite substantially and our market share. So because of our scale, as you've said we've been there longer than anybody and we're the biggest international hotel company there by a long way, we've actually gained significant market share, because we have the systems and capability and the brands to deliver. So I'm very optimistic in the medium and long term about China, even though like many emerging markets, you know, it has a few ups and downs along the way. Our business is a long term game and you have to be there for the long term.

Heila Ebrahimi Obviously IHG the other trend in IHG has been moving from a hotel company that owns real estate to a brand company and a brand expert. You've had this asset-light policy and you've slowly sold off different hotels, the big hotels left are obviously Hong Kong and Paris. Are you going to be looking at selling those two?

Richard Solomons Well as you say we've had a programme of, we've got 4,600 hotels, we now only own eight. We run about 600 for other people and we franchise the rest. So our philosophy around real estate is not about individual assets, do we own or do we keep. It's about investing our capital where it supports and drives the brands. So on those hotels you mentioned then, you know, at some point in the next few years I'm sure we'll look at it. But right now we're reinvesting $150 million behind . We're putting capital into joint ventures like we've just launched in India and we're doing the same in Russia. So we're investing where we're pushing our brands. And we're putting capital behind technology as well, because one of the key enablers of business today, and not just business but also I think delivering more sophisticated, more personalised brands experiences back to the, you know, the report we put out, requires technology investment. So that's another area of focus for us.

Heila Ebrahimi And what about in terms of, you've got results full year results coming up very soon, last year...

Richard Solomons I can’t tell you anything ….

Heila Ebrahimi You can if you'd like, although. Last year you obviously gave money back to shareholders. You've had a very good history I think, 9.4 billion has been returned to shareholders. Analysts seem to expect that there's going to be another special dividend this year. Is that likely? Is that the tradition now with IHG, you've become a utility company, you just hand the money back?

Richard Solomons Definitely not a utility company. You know we're still very much a growth vehicle. As you mentioned earlier we have 5% of the world's hotel rooms. We've actually got 13% of the global pipeline so very much a growth company. But in our business we generate a lot of capital. We do invest capital back in the business but actually along the way we generate surplus cash. So as you say we have three uses of cash. Right, one is just managing the balance sheet, making sure we've got the right level of debt. Two is reinvesting in the business and three is returning surplus funds to shareholders. So we have a record and a history of it, so I don't think we'll be specific about when and if we might announce another return. But clearly that's, you know, part of our business philosophy and it's served us well.

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