Starwood"s Q4 Revenue up 14%

　　Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide reported fourth-quarter 2011 results on Thursday with revenue up 14%, beating Wall Street estimates.

　　Profits in the fourth quarter we off 51% on impairment charges and other items. Earnings per share was US$0.71, including an estimated US$0.12 of earnings from unit sales in the recently opened Bal Harbour residential complex. Excluding the Bal Harbour impact, the US$0.59 EPS beat equity researcher Robert W. Baird’s US$0.58 estimate and consensus forecasts of US$0.55.

　　CEO Frits van Paasschen said Starwood grew its system by 21,000 rooms in 2011 – the most in company history, mainly due to opportunities in emerging markets. Starwood opened 7,900 rooms in the quarter, ahead of our 4,600 estimate and the highest room opening count of any quarter in 2011, according to equity researchers Robert W. Barid.

　　Van Paasschen added, “We grew worldwide systemwide REVPAR by 5.8%, delivering strong fourth quarter EBITDA and EPS. Each of our nine brands performed well, driving REVPAR index gains for the tenth quarter in a row.

　　“Our strong and growing presence in the emerging markets fueled almost 21,000 room openings in 2011, the most in our Company’s history. These openings bring our five year total to 389 new hotels. In other words, over one-third of our 1,090 hotels are newly opened. When combined with a full year REVPAR increase of 7.4%, our fees jumped 14.3%, a strong acceleration from 2010’s growth rate. As we look to 2012, it is shaping up to be another record year of room additions and strong REVPAR growth.”

　　Analysis of Starwood’s earnings by David Loeb of Baird stated it viewed RevPAR growth reported at 5.8% as weaker than expected, particularly in Europe, which he said could present further downside risk to their estimates in 2012.

　　Loeb added that margins in the fourth quarter were better than expected and guidance was largely maintained for 2012. “In particular, owned hotel margins were a positive and momentum in the select-service chains is encouraging,” Loeb said.