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1. Accor Aims To Buy Back €3 Billion in Shares Through 2027
Accor executives said during a presentation of third-quarter results Thursday that the French firm is to launch a €400 million ($422 million) share buyback program over the next six months that will be part of a €3 billion scheme between now and the end of 2027, Hotel News Now’s Terence Baker reports.
Martine Gerow, group chief financial officer, said results have given the company the confidence to upgrade its full-year 2023 RevPAR guidance to the lower 20% range and its full-year 2023 guidance on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to between €955 million and €985 million.
2. Wyndham Exec Says Choice's Public Overtures 'A Desperate Grab'
On Wyndham Hotels & Resorts’ third-quarter 2023 earnings results conference call, Stephen Holmes, chairman of Wyndham's board of directors, said Choice Hotels International's bid to acquire his company and the public overtures it has made are “a desperate grab to try to solve problems that the company has,” Hotel News Now’s Robert McCune reports.
Attending his first earnings call in six years, Holmes did not hold back in his rebuke. He said Choice’s problems include “no organic growth and a less vibrant loyalty program with virtually no international capabilities.”
“We are frankly not surprised, he said. “Our business offers a medicine cabinet full of remedies. ... They're trying to make us an elixir for their problems.”
3. Nigeria’s Transcorp Hotels Reports 32% Revenue Growth
The hotel industry's recovery is being shown globally, not just among Western hotel companies. In Transcorp Hotels’ third-quarter 2023 earnings, the Nigerian hotel firm reported 31.8% growth in revenue to 29.9 billion Nigerian Naira ($374 million) and a 62% increase in reported profit, according to Frontier Africa Reports.
CEO Dupe Olusola said the firm has “continued to experience strong performance in its international business travel segment, as [the firm] took advantage of renewed investor confidence in the Nigerian economy.” She also mentioned confidence in Nigeria has increased since elections voted in a new government in February.
4. Sunstone Completes $370 Million Sale of Boston Park Plaza
Sunstone Hotel Investors has completed the sale of its 1,060-room Boston Park Plaza for $370 million, or approximately $350,000 per key, according to a news release. The Boston Business Journal reports the new owner of the hotel, which opened in 1927, is Parks Hospitality Holdings. The company has plans to rebrand the hotel under a Hilton flag.
The Aliso Viejo, California-based hotel firm said the sale price represented “a 12.1x multiple on Hotel Adjusted EBITDAre and a 7.1% cap rate on Hotel Net Operating Income for the trailing four quarter period ended June 30, 2023."
According to CoStar data, Sunstone bought the hotel in July 2013 for approximately $250 million.
5. Lifted Purchasing Power Elevates US Economy
Falling inflation and, in turn, increased purchasing power bolstered the U.S. economy in the third quarter, with the government announcing gross domestic product increased 4.9%, the New York Times reports.
"The pace exceeded forecasts and was the strongest showing since late 2021, defying predictions of a slowdown prompted by the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases," the newspaper reports.
The newspaper reports that the increase occurred despite weakened wage growth.
“There’s been an enormous increase in wealth since COVID,” said Yelena Shulyatyeva, senior economist at BNP Paribas. “People still take not just one vacation, not just two, but three and four.”