InterContinental shrugs off impact of China pressures

InterContinental Hotels Group, the world's largest hotel group by room numbers, said its business remained unscathed in China despite the twin pressures of a Beijing crackdown on corruption and political tension in Hong Kong.

The group's plan to open 186 hotels over the next five years in the key China market remains unchanged. The market is the group's second-largest after the United States.

The China expansion will take the group's room numbers to 126,073, a jump of 77 per cent. All will be added under hotel management contracts, with no equity interest.

Kenneth Macpherson, InterContinental's chief executive for Greater China, believes the mainland's austerity measures and Hong Kong's Occupy Central movement will have only a short-term impact on the industry.

The protracted pro-democracy protests, now in their fifth week, have disrupted businesses in Admiralty, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok.

Nevertheless, it is understood that InterContinental will put on sale its only wholly owned asset in the China market, the InterContinental Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui. The asking price could be about US$1 billion, sources have said.

The group declined to comment on the potential sale, which has surprised the market.