LONDON, May 13, 2026, 19:10 BST
- IHG is set to rebrand the 150-room Hotel Mount Fuji, making it the company’s third Vignette Collection hotel in Japan. InterContinental Hotels Group PLC
- Holiday Inn’s parent picked up another 37,286 shares for cancellation on May 12, flagging the latest buyback in a disclosure. Investegate
- First-quarter room revenue topped forecasts, but Middle East demand is still weighing on results for now. Reuters
InterContinental Hotels Group PLC on Wednesday announced plans to bring Japan’s Hotel Mount Fuji into its Vignette Collection brand, marking another upscale conversion move. The company is also pushing ahead with its ongoing share buyback, continuing to return capital to shareholders.
Why does the deal matter right now? IHG’s looking to ramp up growth, but not just by building new hotels. Conversions—where an existing property is brought under an IHG brand, usually following a renovation—tend to be faster than developing a hotel from the ground up. In the first quarter, 35% of rooms IHG opened were conversions, and 53% of rooms signed also fell into that category, the company said. InterContinental Hotels Group PLC
The announcement follows IHG’s upbeat first-quarter RevPAR numbers—beating forecasts for the key hotel metric tracking room sales against capacity. Now, investors are sizing up that demand, set against a steeper Middle East slowdown and shares that just brushed all-time highs. Reuters
IHG has teamed up with FUJI KYUKO Co Ltd to overhaul the 150-room Hotel Mount Fuji, a property dating back to 1963, and relaunch it as Hotel Mount Fuji, Vignette Collection following a major renovation. Perched atop Mount Odeyama at 1,100 metres, the hotel offers views of both Lake Yamanaka and Mount Fuji. InterContinental Hotels Group PLC
This latest hotel marks the third Vignette Collection property for Japan, adding to RIHGA Royal Hotel Osaka and The Windsor Hotel TOYA. IHG counts over 79 Vignette hotels either open or in the pipeline around the world. InterContinental Hotels Group PLC
Abhijay Sandilya, IHG Hotels & Resorts’ managing director for Japan and Micronesia, described the partnership as “a significant milestone” for the company’s Luxury & Lifestyle portfolio in Japan. FUJI KYUKO’s president and representative director, Koichiro Horiuchi, said both firms were “excited to write a new chapter” for Hotel Mount Fuji. InterContinental Hotels Group PLC
IHG picked up 37,286 ordinary shares in the market on May 12, according to a regulatory filing, with Goldman Sachs International executing the trades on the London Stock Exchange. Prices ranged from $147.90 to $150.00 apiece, landing at an average of $149.5426. The company said it plans to cancel the repurchased stock. Investegate
The deal came after a 32,713-share buy on May 12—again routed via Goldman Sachs—at an average of $148.9026 each. Combined, those two recent trades add up to 69,999 shares, or roughly $10.4 million at the disclosed average prices. Investegate
IHG reported last week that it’s wrapped up $240 million of the $950 million share buyback set for 2026, reducing its share count by 1.1%. The investor page listed shares at $149.65 as of 17:10 on Wednesday, a drop of 0.5% from the prior close. InterContinental Hotels Group PLC
Conditions remain solid. IHG reported a 4.4% increase in global RevPAR for the first quarter—Americas gained 3.6%, EMEAA climbed 5.6%, and Greater China edged up by 5.7%. Average daily rates moved 2.0% higher, with occupancy also up by 1.5 percentage points. InterContinental Hotels Group PLC
The risk jumps out. According to Reuters, IHG’s RevPAR in the Middle East slipped 2% last quarter, then plunged roughly 50% in the current quarter—a sharper drop than rivals Hilton or Marriott reported in that area. IHG maintains that gains in other markets will compensate for losses in the Middle East, as long as travel demand sticks. Reuters
Chief Executive Elie Maalouf told analysts that “consumer spending is good” in the United States. Chief Financial Officer Michael Glover added that IHG hadn’t seen customers scrapping travel plans because of rising fuel prices. AlphaValue’s Yi Zhong argued IHG’s mid-scale brands were positioned for value-driven leisure travelers, but noted that business-travel exposure might hold back gains compared to rivals. Reuters
IHG runs more than a million rooms worldwide, spread over 7,000 hotels—Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental, Kimpton, and Six Senses among its banners—in upwards of 100 countries. The pipeline holds another 2,300 properties. By comparison, the Mount Fuji transaction is small, yet it sticks to the usual script: add to the room count, push the strength of the brands, and keep the numbers looking healthy on the balance sheet. InterContinental Hotels Group PLC
