Choice Hotels International: Q4 earnings up 10percent

Choice Hotels International, Inc. today reported its results for the three months and year ended December 31, 2016.

Choice Hotels International, Inc. today reported its results for the three months and year ended December 31, 2016. Net income for the fourth quarter of 2016 was $31.8 million or $0.56 per diluted share, compared with $29.2 million or $0.51 per diluted share for the fourth quarter of 2015. Fourth quarter adjusted earnings before income taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was $56.0 million, compared with $50.6 million in the prior year, an increase of 11 percent.

“We are pleased to report another record year of revenue, operating income and net income performance. 2016 was a strong year for Choice Hotels highlighted by our domestic RevPAR growth which continues to outpace industry performance and strong development results,” said Stephen P. Joyce, chief executive officer of Choice Hotels. “There are many contributing factors to our success highlighted by our efforts to deliver new strategic programs and tools designed to increase reservation delivery to our franchisees, the acceleration of our growth and performance in the upscale category, and our strong development momentum. We are optimistic that our expanded programs and services will result in continued strong RevPAR performance and developer interest in 2017 and beyond.”


Highlights of the company’s fourth quarter and full-year 2016 results are as follows:

Overall Results

โ€ข Diluted earnings per share (EPS) for the fourth quarter totaled $0.56, an increase of 10 percent from the comparable period of the prior year, and increased 11 percent for the full year to $2.46; excluding executive termination benefits, full year adjusted diluted EPS increased 12 percent over the prior year.

โ€ข Net income totaled $31.8 million for the fourth quarter and $139.4 million for the full year.

โ€ข Adjusted EBITDA from hotel franchising activities for the fourth quarter increased 8 percent from the prior year fourth quarter to $61.4 million and increased 7 percent to $273.3 million for the full year.

โ€ข Adjusted hotel franchising margins for the fourth quarter increased 110 basis points from the prior year fourth quarter to 64.4 percent, and increased 90 basis points to 68.2 percent for the full year.

Royalties

โ€ข Domestic royalty fees for fourth quarter totaled $68.4 million, an increase of 8.4 percent from the comparable period of the prior year; full year domestic royalties increased 6.9 percent to $300.7 million from the same period of 2015.

โ€ข Domestic system-wide revenue per available room (RevPAR) increased 5 percent and 3.9 percent for the fourth quarter and full year, respectively. Occupancy and average daily rates increased 150 basis points and 2.3 percent, respectively in the fourth quarter from the same period of 2015.

โ€ข Domestic RevPAR performance for the fourth quarter of 2016 exceeded total industry results by 180 basis points, and also exceeded growth reported by Smith Travel Research for the primary chain scale segments in which the company competes.

โ€ข Comfort family of brands and Sleep recorded 27 and 31 consecutive months of RevPAR index gains compared to its competition, respectively.

โ€ข Cambria hotel & suites achieved full year RevPAR of over $100.

โ€ข Effective royalty rate increased 13 basis points and 11 basis points for the fourth quarter and full year 2016, respectively.

โ€ข Domestic hotels as of December 31, 2016, increased 1.6 percent from December 31, 2015.

Development

โ€ข Approved 267 new franchised hotels for development in the fourth quarter, bringing full year new franchise agreements to 645 hotels. New construction franchise agreements increased 23 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016 from the comparable period of 2015.

โ€ข Cambria hotel & suites continued to enter major markets with groundbreakings and openings in Philadelphia, two projects in Chicago, Nashville and New York’s Times Square.

โ€ข The company’s domestic pipeline of hotels awaiting conversion, under construction or approved for development as of December 31, 2016, increased 19 percent from December 31, 2015.

โ€ข The domestic new construction pipeline for Cambria hotel & suites as of December 31, 2016, totaled 66 hotels, a 53 percent increase from December 31, 2015.

“We continue to have great success in executing and opening new construction hotels in top markets, as developers have taken note of our strong RevPAR performance and the brand strategies that we have implemented to improve hotel performance,” said Patrick Pacious, president and chief operating officer, Choice Hotels.

“We are particularly pleased that Cambria hotel & suites and the Comfort brands continue to draw attention from top hotel developers, resulting in an increase in new construction projects in prime urban locations. We expect to see continued interest and development of these brands in highly desirable markets.”

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Linda Hohnholz

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