IHG: Bahrain, Egypt unrest cost $4m in Q2

UK-based InterContinental Hotels Group said on Tuesday that the unrest in Bahrain and Egypt had cost its Middle East hotels operation $4m in the second quarter of 2011. The company said revenue per available room (revPAR) in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) had increased four percent, but would have been better had it not been for problems in Bahrain and Egypt.Excluding Egypt (10 hotels) and Bahrain (2 hotels) where the political unrest resulted in significant declines, revPAR would have risen 5.3 percent, the company said in a statement. In other Middle East markets, Saudi Arabia saw the biggest revPAR growth of 10.2 percent while its hotels in the UAE saw an increase of 3.4 percent. Second quarter EMEA revPAR growth hit 4.8 percent, or six percent growth excluding Egypt and Bahrain, the company added.EMEA revenue increased 17 percent to $224m and operating profit increased 22 percent to $71m. Managed operating profit declined by $1m to $31m as underlying growth across Continental Europe was offset by a $4m impact from the unrest in the Middle East. Richard Solomons, chief executive of InterContinental Hotels Group, said: “In the first half we delivered a strong performance across each of our regions, driven both by increased occupancy from business and leisure travellers as well as progressive rate improvement. \"Global revPAR grew 6.7 percent with Greater China up 12.7 percent and the US up 8.2 percent, where the Holiday Inn relaunch is delivering sustained outperformance.\" IHG is an international hotel company which operates seven hotel brands – InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites. From / Arabian Business News