Goldman upgrades InterContinental Hotels, downgrades Whitbread

InterContinental Hotels GroupSharecast graphic / Josh White

InterContinental Hotels Group

8,036.00p

13:10 19/09/24

1.54%

122.00p

Goldman Sachs upgraded InterContinental Hotels to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ on Wednesday and cut Premier Inn owner Whitbread to ‘neutral’ from ‘buy’ as it reshuffled its European-listed hotel ratings.

FTSE 100

8,339.02

13:10 19/09/24

n/a

FTSE 350

4,603.30

13:10 19/09/24

n/a

FTSE All-Share

4,558.72

13:10 19/09/24

n/a

Travel & Leisure

7,933.17

13:09 19/09/24

1.63%

127.02

Whitbread

3,155.00p

13:10 19/09/24

1.94%

60.00p

The bank said IHG’s enhanced long-term earnings per share growth algorithm, improved enterprise platform and optionality on ancillary revenue streams merits a narrower valuation discount to key US peers.

"We think the stock’s de-rating over the last six months creates an attractive entry-point into a high quality, asset-light hotel franchise platform offering more than 15% EPS CAGR (2023-28E) a 7% shareholder return per annum and one of the highest returns on invested capital in our leisure coverage (circa 46% in 2025E)," GS said.

"While we still see Whitbread as a business with the appropriate strategy to take advantage of structural opportunities and a strong management team, our profit before tax estimates are circa 2% below consensus in FY25/26 and soft UK industry revenue per available room trends could weigh on the short-term outlook."