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Accor Sa
4/23/2026
Welcome to the Accor Q1 2026 Revenue Presentation. Today's conference will be hosted by Martine Giraud, Group CFO. For the first part of the conference, the participants will be on listen-only mode. During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now I will hand the conference over to Mrs. Giraud. Please go ahead. Welcome to the Accor Q1 2026 revenue presentation. Today's conference will be hosted by Martine Giraud, Group CFO. For the first part of the conference,
Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining Accor's first quarter trading call. And so I'll start with the highlights on page three. So we entered 2026, keeping pace with the fourth quarter of 2025 with REF PAR in the mid to high single digits and all regions performing well through February, which demonstrates the attractiveness of our brands and the strength of our diverse portfolio. Despite the conflict in Iran, which impacted our business starting in mid-March, in some of the GCC countries, we delivered a strong REF PAR in the first quarter, and we picked up the pace on net unit growth. Q1 REF PAR rose a solid 5.1%. March REF PAR remained positive at 1.6%, despite the Iran conflict with all the regions, again, except some of the GCC performing above our expectations. The performance in the quarter was mostly driven by price for about two-thirds, with occupancy rate improving by one point. From a business versus leisure standpoint, individual business and group leisure were the most dynamic segments in the quarter. Net unique growth reached 3.8% on the last 12-month basis. That's up from 3.7% at the end of 2025. Pipeline continues to grow at the healthy double-digit growth, plus 10% in the first quarter on an LTM basis. And that is consistent with our goal of accelerating NUG toward the higher end of our 3% to 5% midterm guidance. Turning to revenue, management and franchise revenue grew at 8.3% at constant currency, which is in line with the REFBAR plus NUG growth algorithm. Group revenue increased by 2.3% at constant currency and 3.8% at constant scope and constant currency. And as always, we remain laser focused on meeting our commitments in what is certainly a tougher macro and geopolitical backdrop. On April 1st, we announced the signing of an MOU on the sale of our stake in S&D for a consideration of up to 975 million euro with 675 million euro to be received upfront and up to 300 million euro in subsequent. Having cleared the insider information pursuant to that transaction, we launched on April 2nd a first tranche of 225 million of the 450 million 2026 share buyback program. The impact of the conflict in the Middle East is so far mostly felt in the UAE, which accounts for 3% of our network. Saudi and Egypt are holding up and demand in the other regions remains healthy. Nevertheless, we're closely monitoring the conflict and have already taken measures to both minimize the impact of our results, but also redirecting traffic towards the higher growth market. Let's now turn to slide four and Q1. REF bar by division started with PME, which posted a very resilient REF bar growth of plus 4.5%. Rate was up 3% and occupancy rate was up one point at 62%. ENA posted a solid 2.7% REF bar. That's an acceleration from the fourth quarter of 2025. And that was driven by occupancy. and exceeded our expectations for the first quarter with France and the UK posting growth in line with the fourth quarter. In France, Paris grew REFBAR in the mid single digit, demonstrated the continued attractiveness of the destination, and the province was also solid. In the UK, demand remained solidly in the low single digit in both London and the region. In Germany, REFBAR turned slightly negative over the quarter with demand highly correlated to events and fair activity with a calendar that was weaker in the first quarter. In May APAC, Q1 REFBAR rose 5.5%, nearly all driven by rates. The impact of the conflict was again concentrated in the UAE in March. Southeast Asia accelerated in the first quarter with REFBAR in the high single digit as Thailand and Indonesia returned to positive territory, bouncing back from last year's demand softness. Singapore and Japan also posted solid ref bar growth. Mayat posted a positive mid single digit ref bar growth overall in the first quarter with March ref bar turning negative in the high single digit. UAE was down high single digit in the first quarter while Saudi remained positive. Pacific maintained its strong momentum with a high single digit ref bar growth in the first quarter. China continues to sequentially improve, posting a negative low single-digit growth in the quarter, as our portfolio in China is mostly echo mid-scale. America has posted another strong quarter, with REF PAR up 9.1%. The area is mostly driven by Brazil, as you know, which continued to post low double-digit REF PAR growth in the period. Turning to luxury and lifestyle, ref bar growth was a solid plus 6% with rate up 4% in the first quarter and occupancy up one point at 61%. Luxury continued to outperform the segment with first quarter ref bar at plus 6.8% with rate up 5% and occupancy up one point. With all brands exceeded our expectation in the first quarter, despite the slowdown in March. Demand was particularly strong in the Americas and Europe. Lifestyle grew REFBAR by 4.2% with rates up 4% and occupancy flat. This segment was more impacted by the conflict given the geographic mix, although we started seeing some demand being redirected to Egypt and Turkey in late March and early April. Lifestyle collective hotels posted a high single-digit REFBAR growth in line with the fourth quarter of 2025. Turning to slide five, which breaks down our hotel portfolio and pipeline division, PME sustained its 3% network growth on an LTM basis in the first quarter and continued its move to franchise with 53% of its portfolio franchise in the first quarter. which is up two points from the first quarter of 2025. As usual for the first quarter, Q1 26 pace of opening was moderate, but included two notable large openings in Saudi Arabia in March. Pipeline continued to pick up pace, up 12.4% on an LTM basis, mostly driven by the MerPak region. Notable signings included the Grand Mercure in Phu Quoc in Vietnam and Ibis Brightfield City Hotel in Australia. The MNF revenue per room was stable in the quarter at €1,200 per room. Luxury and lifestyle accelerated its network growth at 8.8% on an LTM basis, with both segments picking up pace from last year, benefited in particular from the lower churn as we expected. To note that lifestyle network growth approached 20% on an LTM basis in the quarter. Pipeline for luxury and lifestyle grew 3.7% and stands at 44% of the network, which is up one point from December of 2025. And the M&F Renew is also stable at €4,000 per room. At group level, therefore, NAG reached 3.8% on an LTM basis, which is, again, slightly above where we finished the year. Conversions represented 67% of opening in the first quarter, again, demonstrating the strength of our brands and geographies. And for the group, again, the pipeline was a double digit at 10.3%. in volume with again a record level of signings in value in the quarter. Now let's turn to slide six with revenue by segments. As always, you will find the details of the revenue by segment and by division in the appendix as well as the press release. The group's revenue reached 1,313,000,000 in the first quarter, up 2.3% at constant currency versus prior. The reported decrease at minus 2.7% is negatively impacted by FX, notably the US dollar, which represents about 50% of the FX impact in the quarter. But we also had a negative scope effect of 1.4% from the disposal of our para-society festive and events businesses. And so on a like-for-like basis, revenue in the quarter was up 3.8%. Management and franchise revenue grew by 8.3% at constant currency, again, in line with the expected algorithm from Rapport and NUG. Revenue in hotel assets and other was down 4.4% at constant currency. The solid trading activity in Australia and Brazil within PME was more than offset by the disposal that I just referred to, as well as the lower activity in our recast restaurant portfolio in Dubai, obviously highly impacted since the beginning of the conflict. If we exclude the disposal, hotel assets and other revenue on a like-for-like basis, constant scope and constant currency was up 3.3%. SMDL, which stands for sales marketing, distribution and loyalty, revenue was up 6.2% at constant currency. And to note that we had an exceptionally strong first quarter last year. Reimbursed costs are flat. And as a reminder, this is absolutely a pure path through with no impact on EBITDA. Turning to management and franchise on slide seven, again, plus 8.3% in the first quarter. Thanks to a strong performance in luxury and lifestyle, as you can see here at plus 15%, we were able to absorb in the first quarter the impact of the flip to franchise in PME, as well as a more prudent approach to incentives. As for M&F fees, incentives accounted for 31% of our fees in the quarter. PME management and franchise revenue is up 4.3% at constant currency. The distortion is mainly related to the switch from management to franchise revenue, contract, which impacted the first quarter by about one point. Now, that is half of what we had experienced in 2025, where the impact was two point and in line with what we had shared with you, but also a more prudent approach to incentives given the uncertainty around the Middle East. Luxury and lifestyle M&F revenue grew at 15% at constant currency. That's in line with the growth algorithm. from Refbar and NUG, and the cautiousness or prudence regarding the development of the conflict and therefore incentives was offset in the quarter by some termination fees. And to conclude this presentation and before we move to Q&A on slide eight, our business weathered the storm in the first quarter thanks to the resilience of our portfolio and an excellent start of the year. Outside of the UAE, the demand was solid in March and trending in line with actually January and February. Clearly, the situation is very fluid, but the demand remains structurally healthy. And just to note that more recently, schools have reopened in the UAE and air traffic is also increasing in the GCC. In light of the situation, nevertheless, we have reacted very quickly, both redirecting our investments towards more supportive markets and activating in March a group-wide profit protection plan to protect margin and to mitigate the impact of lower trading on our EBITDA. We accelerate development in growth markets, notably in India, which you know is a priority market for Accor. And just to share with you that the pipeline in India has gained significant momentum in the last six months with 46 hotels that we have signed or under MOU across the PME and the luxury portfolio in the last six months, which is 63% of the existing network in India. So clearly accelerating the pace of development in a very strategic market. And finally, as a reminder, we launched the first launch of the 2026 share buyback on April 2nd, as I said in my introduction. And I will now turn the floor over to you for the Q&A session.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key 6. The next question comes from Jared Castle from UBS. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good afternoon, evening, everyone. Maybe three from me. Thanks for that. Can you say anything in terms of your kind of medium-term EBITDA guidance of 9% to 12% if you're still happy with that and, you know, what you're seeing at the moment? Secondly, you know, obviously the pipeline's up, but the portfolio was actually down versus the year end. Is this just kind of Q1 seasonality where there's a lot of churn or is there anything else going on? It was only very slightly down, but if you can just kind of give a bit of color, slightly down, broadly flat. And then just lastly, you've launched the buyback. Can you just give a quick update how much you've done and should we expect a follow-on sometime in July with the half-year results? Thanks.
Thanks, Jared, for your question. So as you know, we do not communicate annual guidance until the July when we release our first half results. So with respect to the midterm, you know, guidance for 2023-2027, that, you know, that guidance is still there and will give you more precisions in July. What I will say, though, is that, you know, at this point in time, I'm comfortable with where the consensus is on REF for any bid down. With respect to the pipeline, I mean, Q1 is always very soft, right? Because we have very, you know, as you know, our openings are mostly in the second half and actually a lot of them are in the fourth quarter. So you always have a, you know, very low, if not flattish growth in the first quarter. Actually, last year in the first quarter of 2025, we were negative. And with respect to the buyback, yes, we have started the buyback. And as of so far, we have bought 41 million euro, which is about 900,000 share at about 44 euro price. And yes, we have committed to a 450 million share buyback program. And so as we usually do, we tend to do, you know, the first half in the first semester and second half in the second semester.
Right. Thanks very much.
The next question comes from Jaina Mistry from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hi, Martine. Good evening. Three questions from me, if I may. The first question is around Westpac. You know, TUI reported kind of softer summer bookings when they reported yesterday. And I know you said other markets were holding up outside the Middle East. But have you seen any cracks in bookings or in rev par in Europe or Asia from your on the books? And then the second question is around EBITDA. Just. You know, in light of the significant RevPAR downgrade, or RevPAR declines in the Middle East, your restaurants are shut. Do you expect EBITDA and H1 to grow? And then for full year EBITDA consensus, I know you mentioned you're comfortable with consensus. Now, I was quite surprised by that. Could you maybe walk us through why you're happy with consensus, where you see consensus, and just the drivers of operating leverage, quantify the cost savings, just help us understand the moving parts here, because there are some very big moving parts given geopolitics. Thank you.
Hi, Jenna. So with respect to your first question on, you know, do we see any cracks in demand? We don't see any cracks in demand. When we look at the, you know, as you know, obviously there's not a ton of visibility with respect to, you know, given the booking windows. However, when we look at the room on the books, we don't see, you know, we don't see any crack in demand outside of, again, the Middle East, and in particular the UAE. So actually, if anything, so, you know, ENA, I mean, Europe is holding up. Actually, within Europe, we see a pickup in the MED. So Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Morocco is another country where we're seeing a pickup. Similar to TUI, we do see a lower pickup in Cyprus, Turkey mainly, but that's very slight. And again, this is a very small part of our portfolio. But it's minor. It's, you know, it's really, you know, flattish to low single digit. But the rest of the AI and actually AI overall is a positive in terms of, you know, in terms of pickup with room on the books. Asia is still performing quite well. America is performing quite well. Canada is really performing very well when we look at the room on the books. And the U.S. is also is also performing well. So no, really no cracks whatsoever. no cracks in demand. You know, we, With respect to the consensus, I think the consensus on REF PAR is 2.3%, right? So if you take consensus plus, you know, the consensus on NUG, which is around, I think, 3.9%, you know, that gives you basically, you know, a 6% plus total, which, you know, should translate into MNF revenue growth. And therefore, you know, given our profit protection plan, which we have, again, you know, initiated in March, so you take a bit lower REF bar, which is about one point, right, if you look at consensus versus the low end of the guidance, and you take the profit protection plan, basically that means that we'll be able to reach, you know, that consensus, which is about, on a reported basis, I think that's about a 6% growth in EBITDA at current rates.
And then on the question around H1 EBITDA, do you expect that to grow? We don't guide on H1 EBITDA, but it will be up. Okay. Would you mind quantifying the cost protection plan?
No, I'm not going to. I'll just say that given – I'll tell you that. You may recall last year that we had a profit protection plan, right, that we initiated – in the second half. The profit protection plan we are activating or have activated, you know, we started obviously earlier, so that gives you a sense for, you know, what that could be.
Okay, very clear. Thank you.
The next question comes from Muniba Kayani from BOFA. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks, Martin, for taking my questions. Just on the Middle East, thank you for pointing out March, Rev, R. Would it be possible for you to indicate to us what you're seeing in April and May based on your bookings and so far? Then secondly, also on the Middle East, in terms of development activity, what are you seeing right now on the ground? And then just on the kind of the report that was on the hotel network and you'd announced that you'd started internal and external investigations, is it possible to give a little bit more color on what you've learned so far? Thank you.
Hi, I'll actually start with the last question. So we're still conducting the internal and external investigations. And, you know, we expect to be to be completed with, you know, with those investigations sometime sometime in May. And as we, you know, as we communicated, we'll share the conclusions of those, not just all these investigations, but also, you know, any actions that we feel we would need to take going forward to reinforce this. With respect to the Middle East, so what we see in April, frankly, is a greater impact in the UAE because the UAE in March, you know, because basically tourists couldn't come home, you know, the impact was not 100% felt, you know, in March. But what we see is we see Egypt and Saudi really, you know, holding up to where we had expected them. So it's just really the UAE and the UAE is obviously, you know, with lower occupancy rate in the, you know, let's call it, you know, 20 to 30% in April. Now, the good thing is, or the encouraging thing is that the UAE has, the Emirates have decided to reopen the school. And we're seeing also a reopening of the airspace, which should encourage traffic to the region and hopefully through the region as well. And with respect to NAG, I think it's, you know, way too early to tell whether that, you know, will have an impact or not. You know, you should keep in mind that with respect to our openings, they're mostly in Saudi and in Egypt. So we actually have very, very few openings in the Emirates this year. And most of our openings, actually, most of our openings, two-thirds of our openings are usually in the fourth quarter, and 2026 is no is no different. And one thing I also would like to, you know, maybe you would like to point out back to Jenna's question. You have to keep in mind that the activity in the Middle East is the strongest. Big quarters are the first quarter and the fourth quarter. Right. So we essentially run through the first quarter. And I think, you know, if we assume that the tensions are going to ease, you know, sometimes around the summer, then that should, you know, protect the fourth quarter in that region.
Thank you. The next question comes from Estelle Weingrad from JPM. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening. I've got two questions. The first one, there are some concerns on potential jet fuel shortages and potential, you know, flight cancellations and so on into the summer. I'd like to know what's your take on this. If we get there, is Europe perhaps more sustained or resilient versus other regions like Southeast Asia? And my second question is on unbranded residential, given the ongoing events in the Middle East. How likely is it to see some of these projects being postponed? Thank you.
Hi, Estelle. So, you know, with respect to the jet fuel shortages, you have to recall that when it comes to source of travel or source of traffic, if you look at the Europe region, over 80 percent is within Europe region. And if you look at Southeast Asia, over 70 percent. is again within the region. So to some extent that protects us, you know, from, let's say, what could happen to fuel shortages or airline prices, you know, for that matter. And again, when we look at, you know, room on the books in the summer, we're really not seeing any signs of lower demand in Europe. Any region, frankly, obviously bar some of the GCC markets. With respect to the branded residencies, again, probably too early to tell. Could there be some of those openings that move into the 2027? Frankly, it's too early to tell at this point. And again, a lot of those are in the fourth quarter. I mean, sorry, in the second half. Thanks.
The next question comes from Alex Brignall from Rothschild and Co. Redburn. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Thank you so much for taking the question. I just have one really on Ascendi. Could you just go into a little bit of detail as to where we are sort of contractually with that transaction? I know at the time it was sort of not specifically binding, but if you could talk about where you are, what the things are that need to be completed before we'll get the sort of completed announcement and what the Q3 for timeframe, but whether we would hear anything else before then. Thank you so much.
Hey, Alex. Well, look, we're still in the same place that we were when we released our price release. Obviously, the fact that we released a price release on an MOU was a sign of our confidence in getting that transaction across the line, which we hope to do sometimes with a signed MOU sometime in the second quarter. And then we'll have to go through regulatory approvals that should take us in the third
Thank you so much.
The next question comes from Sabrina Blanc from Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Good evening, Martin. Two questions from my part. The first one is regarding the... the measures that you have taken, can you provide more clarity to provide example and just to understand what you have put in place since the beginning of the year compared to what has been done in the second part of 2025? Because I understood that a part of the cost has been postponed at the time in 2025. And the second question is regarding the switch of hotels from managed to franchise. You have mentioned 1% impact this quarter. Could you go more in detail for the remaining part of the year, excluding S&D, and after that, reminding us the impact for S&D?
Good evening, Sabrina. Sure. So in terms of the measures, I mean, there's really two broad categories, right? One, obviously, measures in the impacted markets. So I would say that about half of the plan is in those impacted markets and half of the plan is, frankly, in other parts of the group. And the measures are very, I would say, similar to what we did in the second half of 2025. So essentially constraining the impact. constraining the cost and constraining the investments. But we are also very careful of still maintaining investments in the markets where we have good demand. And actually, we have redirected some of the investments away from the Middle East into other markets. With respect to the flip to franchise, we expect about one point of distortion in 2026, which is, again, half of what we experienced in 2025. You know, S&D will not impact 2026, given the timing of the transaction. And as we indicated, I think, in the press release, the impact of the move to franchise of the S&D portfolio is going to be gradual over several years. And again, as we indicated in, you know, when we announced that MOU, it does not in any way impact our ability to meet our, you know, midterm algorithm as it was, you know, factored in that algorithm.
The next question comes from Jaffer Mestari from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. Two questions, please. First one on Middle East. If you could please recap the current trends. Obviously, March was impacted gradually. Then in April, there's also a positive Ramadan calendar shift, if I'm correct. So for as long as this continues in the current state, What revenue impact do we assume for DUAE, please? I heard you say a minus 20% number. I'm not quite sure, minus 20, minus 30, what you were referencing. And then Turkey and Saudi, is it flat-ish right now? And then second question, once we have that, Your published EBITDA sensitivity, if I'm correct, is 7 to 8 million euros for each point of group REFR. Obviously, it's a lot more difficult to offset these big numbers, and the Middle East has a skew to higher ADRs and to management contracts as well within this area. Can we still more or less use the 7 to 8 million euros or can we not use it but thanks to the profit protection plan we can? What's the logic there? Thank you.
Sure. Hi, Jafar. So the minus, so the 20, you know, the 20 to 30s that I was referring to is the occupancy rate in the UAE, so in Dubai, essentially, in, you know, in April.
With respect to the... Occupancy, and so... Yes, the occupancy. Total ref power, please, would be extremely useful.
Yeah, yeah, total ref power is down, you know, much more than that. in the UAE. It's actually, you're right. I mean, KSA, you know, it very much depends on when the Ramadan is. What I will say on KSA society is that, you know, the Ramadan activity was as we expected it. And we see the drop-off from Ramadan, frankly, as per seasonality. So no change there. Egypt, actually, we see, you know, we see occupancy, again, as we expected. There's some redirecting of traffic, actually, from the lifestyle resorts into Egypt. In Turkey, we haven't talked about Turkey, but actually Turkey, we're starting to see the pickup from seasonality, again, you know, as we expect. So it's really the UAE that keeps, let's say, that stays impacted. And obviously will be more in April than was in March, given the timing of the conflict. And with respect to the algorithm, you know, that algorithm is, you're right, it's an average algorithm, but given the profit protection plan that we have in place, that algorithm stands.
Super. So just we don't need to use something different, but equally we shouldn't double count.
Correct.
Seven to eight million and then.
Correct.
Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Simon Lechipre from Jefferies. Please go ahead. Simon Lechipre, your line is now unmuted. Please go ahead. The next question comes from Jamie Rollo from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my question. Two, please. First of all, can I just double-check in the context of your full-year EBITDA commentary that you're still expecting SMDL margins of around 6%? I know they were a bit higher last year, but you're not factoring in a big upward surprise on that line, are you? And then secondly, and I may have missed it, apologies, are you still expecting net unit growth to begin with a fall at the full year this year? Thank you.
hi jamie uh yes on smdl uh i confirmed that uh you know we hold to the uh six percent plus uh margin uh and with respect to uh nug you know as as i've said it's you know it's it's really too early to uh it's really too early uh to say uh uh whether uh because again you know two-thirds of our opening are in the fourth quarter which is you know good news because hopefully by then, you know, the tensions will have, you know, will have eased considerably.
Okay, thank you.
Simon Lechipre, your line is now unmuted. Please go ahead.
Yes, good afternoon. First of all, the pricing strategy with the rise in oil price and FF going up, do you expect the industry to react with some pricing cut to sort of stimulate demand into the summer? Secondly, on the Middle East, I think a meaningful part of your hotel asset and other division is exposed to your region with your restaurant business. So can you remind us how much of the division is exposed to Middle East? And my understanding is that the restaurants are still open, but I assume there's probably not much activity. So what sort of drop-through from the road users should we expect? And if you're able to reduce your cost base, do you get any support from government? And last one, if you can update us on the FX impact that you're expecting,
Hi, Simon. So with respect to rates, the only frankly rate pressure we see is really in the UAE where rates are clearly down. We're not seeing that pressure elsewhere, frankly, and we're not seeing that as we go into the – when we look at the summer bookings thus far. In terms of the Middle East, our restaurant business in the Middle East, which is RayGas, is about 10% of the hotel assets and other revenue for the group total, right? So 10% of the group hotel assets and other revenue. And obviously, this is a business actually that is... Because of where it's located, which is in Dubai, you can actually take the cost down very quickly because essentially you can dismiss staff quite quickly as well. Our restaurants are open. Interestingly enough, our restaurant is actually doing fairly well during the weekends. It's a bit slower during the week, but since the last week or so, traffic has actually picked up in those restaurants. because people in Dubai are actually starting to go back into the malls and on the streets. And with respect to FX, FX seems to be a bit more of our friend this year than it was last year, mainly because of the AUD, Australian dollar, which actually is a bit stronger. And therefore, we expect the FX impact to be less than the 30 million that we had shared with you in February. That's assuming that, you know, of course, rates stay at the current level.
Thank you.
You're welcome. There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to Mrs. Giroux for any closing remarks.
Thank you. Well, again, thank you for attending the call. And I wish everyone, thank you for your questions. And I wish everyone a good evening.