Ongoing recovery across the portfolio and potential of Asia Pacific rebound has Chairman and CEO Sébastien Bazin looking at the future with "serenity."
Paris-based Accor reported 4Q22 earnings on Thursday, including a forecast for 2023 that included 5% to 9% increase in RevPAR over 2022, led by the return of Chinese travelers and a broader rebound across Asia Pacific.
For 2022, Accor’s RevPAR exceeded 2019 by 2%. The performance of hotels over the second half of the year surpassed pre-crisis levels in almost all our regions. Regions including India, Africa, the Middle East and Turkey saw a 73% rise in RevPAR in 4Q22, which included a nice boost delivered by the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The Group’s North/Central America and Caribbean region RevPAR was 8% higher in 4Q422 than in 4Q19, still strongly fueled by prices.
In China, RevPAR decreased compared to Q3, falling at 39% in 4Q22 compared with 4Q19 owing to the strict application of a zero-COVID policy until December 2022. Accor said business has since improved despite the situation still challenging. Southeast Asia posted a substantial improvement in 4Q22 (up 17 percentage points from last quarter) with RevPAR at 4% lower than in 4Q19. The recovery was underpinned notably by Singapore, leisure guests in Thailand, and the reopening of Japan in October.
Accor posted a €675 million net profit for the full year 2022, beating consensus expectations. It also said it would propose a dividend of €1.05 per shares for 2022. In 2022, the Group recorded a revenue of €4,224 million, up 80% like-for-like versus FY 2021. This growth breaks down into an improvement of 89% for HotelServices and 63% for Hotel Assets & Other.
“We exceeded our financial and non-financial targets [in 2022] and can look to the future with serenity,” said Accor Chairman and CEO Sébastien Bazin.
Accor opened 299 hotels last year, marking a 3.2% net organic growth to over 800,000 rooms worldwide. At end-December 2022, the group had a hotel portfolio of 802,269 rooms (5,445 hotels) and a pipeline of 216,000 rooms (1,247 hotels).
Accor also announced Chief Financial Officer Jean-Jacques Morin left his position as CFO with a replacement expected to arrive in early May of this year.