InterContinental Hotels eyes 'significant' benefit from Trump tax cuts

After President Donald Trump's tax reform bill was voted through overnight, Holiday Inn owner InterContinental Hotels was one of the first London-listed companies to emerge with a calculation of the impact on its finances.

Based on initial estimates, the Republican tax reforms are expected to reduce IHG's group effective tax rate "by mid to high single digit percentage points" from 1 January 2018. For 2017, IHG's group effective tax rate is still expected to be in the low 30s.

The US tax plan permanently cuts the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and repeals a 20% corporate alternative minimum tax."I promised the American people a big, beautiful tax cut for Christmas. With final passage of this legislation, that is exactly what they are getting,” Trump said as he signed off the bill.

Furthermore, various measures outlined in the bill should also result, IHG said, in a "significant exceptional tax credit in the financial year the bill is signed into law, which would be realised in cash terms over a long period from 2018".