Accor’s Sales Remain on a Roll

Accor has showed a 4.5 percent rise in third-quarter sales, a figure that comes as the French company shows a slowdown in its U.S. budget business, although it maintained its full-year profit outlook.

“We are very confident for all our businesses in all areas for the last quarter,” Chief Financial Officer Jacques Stern said in a news conference.

Accor’s consolidated revenue rose 7.0 percent to €5.6 million in the first nine months of 2006. As to scope of consolidation and exchange rates, the like-for-like increase was 6.3 percent.

The services business posted a very solid 15.1 percent hike in line with the first half’s 16.3 percent spike, reflecting a very robust performance across all regions.

Hotel revenue ramped up 6.3 percent in the third quarter, compared with 5.5 percent in the first half, led by a continued strong performance in Northern Europe (Germany, Benelux and the United Kingdom) and the recovery that is underway in Southern Europe (France, Spain and Italy).

Services and hotel expansion accounted for 2.9 percent of third-quarter growth.

Asset disposals had a negative impact of 4.4 percent, reflecting the faster pace of property disposals as part of the group’s asset management strategy.

As a result, third-quarter revenue was up by 4.5 percent as reported, compared with an 8.4 percent increase in the first half.