InterContinental shares soar after takeover speculation

04 January 2007 by
InterContinental shares soar after takeover speculation

Speculation surrounding a possible takeover of InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) continues to fuel the company's phenomenal share price rise.

The rumours have increased IHG's share price by 60p to 1,266p at the time of going to press, with reports that a 1,500p-per-share bid might be in the offing. This would value the group, whose brands include Holiday Inn, Express by Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Staybridge Suites and InterContinental, at £5.7b.

US hotel and property investment company Starwood Capital, run by Barry Sternlicht, appears to be the current favourite to make a bid for IHG, although other investment groups, including Blackstone and Permira, have also been named as possible contenders.

Last year Sternlicht resigned as chairman and chief executive of Starwood Hotels & Resorts. His investment firm, Starwood Capital, then bought Envergure, the second-largest budget hotel chain in Europe, a stake in luxury hotel group Concorde and the French hotel and Champagne group, Taittinger, for £2b.

Since April 2003, IHG's disposal programme has seen 175 hotel properties sold and the return of £2.74b to investors. IHG declined to comment.

Openings: InterContinental Park Lane, London >>

InterContinental remains on target to add 10,000 rooms in 2006 >>

By Emily Manson

E-mail your comments to Emily Manson](mailto:emily.manson@rbi.co.uk?subject=InterConti shares soar after takeover speculation) here.

Get your copy of Caterer and Hotelkeeper every week -

[Sudoku](http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=302619 "A new puzzle every day!") Join the craze and play Sudoku online!
[Newswire For the latest hospitality news, sign up for our e-mail news alerts.
The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking