InterContinental Hotels Shares Gain On 1Q Results

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of InterContinental Hotels Group PLC gained on Tuesday after the hotel company reported that its profit dropped in the first quarter, but benefited from deep cost cuts.

InterContinental shares gained 46 cents, or 4.7 percent, to $10.33 in afternoon trading. The stock has traded between $5.98 and $16.90 during the past 52 weeks.

The U.K.-based company said its profit fell 56 percent to $27 million, or 9.5 cents per share, during the quarter that ended March 31. InterContinental noted that those results included one-time costs related to its U.K. pension fund and the relaunch of its Holiday Inn brand. Excluding those items, earnings per share totaled about 15 cents.

Revenue fell 24 percent to $342 million. Revenue per available room — a key gauge of a hotelier's performance — fell 13.6 percent during the quarter on a constant currency basis.

Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst C. Patrick Scholes said InterContinental — like its rivals in the hotel industry — beat his forecast by cutting costs deeper than expected. The results were also helped by lower-than-anticipated net interest expense.