European urban lifestyle brand Ruby has been acquired by Holiday Inn owner InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) for $116 million.
Ruby operates 20 hotels and eight workspaces across Europe with five more due to open.
IHG chief executive Elie Maalouf disclosed the deal while reporting a 10% rise in 2024 operating profits to $1.12 billion over the previous year.
He said: “We are delighted to announce the acquisition of the Ruby brand, which further enriches our portfolio with an exciting, distinct and high-quality offer for both guests and owners in popular city destinations.
“This acquisition demonstrates our focus on building our presence in large, attractive industry segments and using our experience of integrating and growing brands and hotel portfolios.
“The urban micro space is a franchise-friendly model with attractive owner economics, and we see excellent opportunities to not only expand Ruby’s strong European base but also rapidly take this exciting brand to the Americas and across Asia, as we have successfully done with previous brand acquisitions.”
Announcing the annual results, Maalouf said: “Strong demand globally from hotel owners and developers for our brands drove the opening of 371 hotels and an impressive 714 properties signed into our pipeline, equivalent to almost two a day.
“The 106,000 rooms signed were 34% more than the previous year. Our global estate now stands at over 6,600 hotels, and momentum continued into 2025 with the recent celebration of our 800th opening in Greater China.
“Our global pipeline increased 10% to over 2,200 hotels, representing future system size growth of 33%.”
Commenting on the results, Julie Palmer, partner at insolvency expert Begbies Traynor, said: “Investors should be able to rest easy following another glistening set of results from IHG that defy the challenges faced by the wider leisure and hospitality sector. Especially with geopolitical uncertainty and the potential impact of Trump’s tariffs on exchange rates on the mind.
“However, the acquisition of its 20th brand, Ruby, alongside the opening of almost 60,000 rooms over the year, is testament to IHG’s impressive rate of expansion and demonstrates the power of operating a global, diversified business with recognisable brands at a time when many smaller operators are struggling.
“This is a reminder that a diverse portfolio doesn’t just benefit when the sun is shining, but delivers resilience to ride out a storm until the clouds clear.”