Frits van Paasschen, President & CEO, said, “Starwood's transformation over the last decade has delivered superior value to shareholders. Over the past five years, we have sustained innovation leadership while delivering excellent financial results. We have held the line on SG&A costs while significantly growing our global footprint. We have one of the fastest growing luxury hotel portfolios, the largest global upper-upscale (5 star) hotel platform and a sizable, high quality hotel pipeline. We have delivered substantial cash from continuing to execute our asset-light strategy, repositioning our vacation ownership business and from Bal Harbour unit sales. As a result, we have today our strongest balance sheet ever and have returned $1.7 billion to shareholders since 2008.”
“We are in a period of unprecedented growth in global travel, driven by the secular trends around the world of rising wealth, rapid urbanization and infrastructure development. As the leading global hotel company in high growth markets, and with a portfolio of coveted, high-end lifestyle brands, Starwood is well positioned to benefit disproportionately from these growth trends. Our brand-led approach, backed by the collective strength of our global platform, gives us an advantage that sets us apart from the competition and allows us to deliver unmatched value to our guests, corporate customers and hotel owners. With the growth from our high-quality global pipeline, the ability to drive rate in the low supply environments of North America and Europe, cash from vacation ownership and continued sales of owned hotels, we expect to generate strong free cash flow and continue to deliver market-leading returns to shareholders.”
Looking forward to the next three years, our outlook assumes a cyclical recovery continues in mature markets and rapid growth continues in growth markets. Assuming annual Worldwide REVPAR growth of 5% to 7% through 2015, 4% to 5% net rooms growth and stable net cash flow from our vacation ownership business, Starwood would generate:
- Annual EBITDA growth of 10% to 12%
- Annual EPS growth of 16% to 20%
- Operating Cash Flow of approximately $2 billion over this time period (inclusive of cash proceeds from Bal Harbour units, exclusive of any sales of owned assets)
- Based on these assumptions and our ability to increase borrowing while maintaining our current investment grade rating, our capacity to invest in growth and return capital to shareholders would be approximately $3.0 billion to $3.3 billion not including cash generated from hotel sales over the three-year timeframe.
- Executing our Asset-Light strategy and achieving our goal of generating 80% of our earnings before SG&A from Management and Franchise fees by 2016 could generate an additional approximately $3 billion of cash proceeds from owned hotel sales.
A live webcast of the Investor & Analyst Day will begin on March 13, at 12:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, or 8:30 a.m. local time in Dubai. The webcast will be available on Starwood's investor relations website at http://www.starwoodhotels.com/corporate/investor_relations.html ; a replay of the webcast will be available beginning at 10 a.m. EDT on March 13 and run for 30 days.
About Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with 1,134 properties in nearly 100 countries and 171,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®, W®, Westin®, Le Méridien®, Sheraton®, Four Points® by Sheraton, Aloft®, and ElementSM. The Company boasts one of the industry’s leading loyalty programs, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG), allowing members to earn and redeem points for room stays, room upgrades and flights, with no blackout dates. Starwood also owns Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., a premier provider of world-class vacation experiences through villa-style resorts and privileged access to Starwood brands. For more information, please visit www.starwoodhotels.com.