Now, listen closely. Everyone’s always sniffing around for the plumpest, juiciest growth stocks, the ones that haven’t quite… ripened yet. It’s a bit like searching for a golden ticket, isn’t it? Except instead of chocolate, you get… well, shares. And when the whole business is tied to the whims of the world – a bit of sunshine here, a hurricane there – it becomes frightfully difficult to tell the good eggs from the rotten ones.
Take InterContinental Hotels Group, or IHG as they call themselves. A rather grand name, wouldn’t you say? Like a king of the bedspreads. They took a terrible walloping when the world went into hiding during the dreadful COVID business. Hotels stood empty, like ghostly castles. But as soon as people remembered how much they enjoyed being squished together on airplanes and in crowded lobbies, things began to perk up. This tale, you see, is about how IHG managed to dust itself off and get back to building its empire. We’ve already peeked behind the velvet ropes to see how they constructed this hotel kingdom, and now we’re going to have a proper look at the numbers – the bits and bobs that really make the world go round.
From the Depths of the Great Stillness…
It feels like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it, when everyone was ordered to stay put? The travel industry, poor thing, was utterly flattened. For IHG, it was like someone had pulled the plug on the whole operation. Revenue halved in 2020, compared to the year before. People simply weren’t booking rooms, preferring the comfort of their own sofas and the company of their slippers. The company scrambled to cut costs, but it was like trying to bail out a sinking ship with a teaspoon. Operating income nearly vanished, swallowed up by the gloom.
Slowly, cautiously, IHG began to tighten its belt. But even with all the pinching and saving, it wasn’t enough to turn things around. They lost a whopping $260 million in 2020 – a truly ghastly sum. By 2021, a few places started to wobble open, and revenue began to creep upwards. But expenses still piled up like discarded luggage, and it wasn’t until the very end of the year that profits dared to peek out from behind the curtains, back to where they used to be.
…To a Return to Growth (and a Bit of Magic)
By 2022, IHG was firmly back on its feet, striding confidently forward. Revenue hit new heights, and in 2024, they raked in $4.92 billion, with a tidy profit of $628 million – or $3.90 per share. The first half of 2025 was even more spectacular, with earnings reaching a new record of $469 million, or $3 per share. Quite a turnaround, wouldn’t you say?
Of course, the world’s sudden and rather desperate need to travel helped. Everyone seemed to have forgotten how to stay home. But IHG didn’t just sit back and count the money. They grabbed hold of that momentum and ran with it, even after the initial rush subsided. They’re rather clever, these hotel people.
And they’ve been busy snapping up smaller companies, like a greedy goblin collecting shiny trinkets. In February 2025, they acquired the Ruby hotel brand for around $116 million. A curious little company, Ruby, focusing on stylish, relaxed hotels in the heart of European cities. They’re trying to bridge the gap between the ridiculously opulent and the merely comfortable. A clever idea, if you ask me. It’s like offering a slightly less extravagant version of paradise.
What Does the Future Hold for IHG?
IHG believes its existing hotels, and the ones it acquires, will continue to grow and flourish. That’s why they’re willing to pay rather generous prices for these companies. Based solely on what they already own, some might say they’re being a bit… optimistic. But they have a plan, a cunning scheme to make it all work.
In the final part of this series, we’ll delve deeper into IHG’s growth strategy, and see just how they intend to keep those share prices climbing. It’s a tale of ambition, acquisition, and a whole lot of beds. And who knows, perhaps a little bit of magic as well.
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2026-01-30 20:13