Hilton slashes its forecast for a key revenue metric (HLT)

Thomson Reuters

(Reuters) - Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc, owner of the Waldorf Astoria hotel chain, lowered its full-year forecast for a key revenue metric for the third time.

Hilton said it now expects its system-wide comparable revenue per available room (RevPAR) to rise between 1.5-2 percent in 2016, down from its previous forecast of 2-4 percent.

RevPAR is calculated by multiplying a hotel's average daily room rate by its occupancy rate.

The company, which also owns the Conrad and Double Tree hotel chains, said its system-wide RevPAR rose 1.3 percent while occupancy fell marginally and its average daily rate rose 1.5 percent during the third quarter.

Hilton said it was on track to complete the spinoffs of Park Hotels & Resorts and Hilton Grand Vacations around the end of the year.

China's aviation and shipping giant HNA Group said on Monday it would buy a 25 percent stake in Hilton from its biggest shareholder Blackstone Group LP for $6.5 billion.

Hilton said net income attributable to its stockholders fell to $187 million, or 19 cents per share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30, from $279 million, or 28 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, the company earned 23 cents per share, inline with the average analyst estimate, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose to $2.94 billion from $2.90 billion, missing analysts' average estimate of $3.00 billion.

Up to Tuesday's close, shares of the McLean, Virginia-based company had risen 6.2 percent this year.

(Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Martina D'Couto)

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