Cineworld to re-open UK cinemas on 31 July: Cineworld is to re-open its cinemas in the US and the UK starting Friday 31 July. The company stated: “Cineworld has and will continue to reopen cinemas in its other markets as previously stated on 16 June 2020, however upcoming reopenings remain subject to final clarifications and confirmation in relation to various government covid-19 restrictions. Cineworld will implement its previously announced health and safety measures, which adhere to the latest public health guidelines and include contactless payments, innovative sanitization procedures, new social distancing protocols and seating capacity limits in line with local regulations. Cineworld will continue to monitor the situation closely and follow any changes to regulations or guidance from public health officials.” Mooky Greidinger, chief executive of Cineworld, said: “Movie fans around the world continue to be excited by the strong slate of summer films ahead, including Tenet, Mulan, A Quiet Place Part II, Unhinged, The Broken Hearts Gallery, Bill & Ted Face the Music, Greenland, and Antebellum as well as a special re-release of Christopher Nolan’s Inception on IMAX. Cineworld looks forward to welcoming these moviegoers back to our cinemas next month and believes that they will once again be immersed in the timeless theatrical experience they know and love.”

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Comptoir Group – re-openings depend on result of negotiations with landlords: Lebanese restaurant group Comptoir Group has stated re-openings depends on the result of discussions with landlords. The company stated: “Comptoir Group will reopen its venues in phases (from 4 July) and in line with recommended safety guidelines. At this stage, the group has not completed its review as to which restaurants it may decide never to re-open. As reported at the full year results of the company, the group went into the covid-19 pandemic with 30 restaurants, including six franchised sites. The directors are in discussions with all its restaurant landlords about future lease obligations. The directors expect the outcome of these discussions and the support it receives from landlords to influence how many restaurants the company operates going forward. The company will provide further updates as appropriate.” 

Intercontinental Hotels – only 10% of estate is closed: Intercontinental Hotels has reported that only 10% of its global hotel estate is currently closed. The company stated: “The pace of hotels reopening has continued to accelerate through the second quarter, with only 10% of the global estate currently still closed. In the Americas region, around 5% are closed; these are predominantly managed luxury and upscale hotels, and those outside of the US. Good progress has been made across the EMEAA region as government-mandated hotel closures have eased; around 30% currently remain closed. In Greater China, just 1% are closed. We expect to report a comparable RevPAR decline of ~(75)% for Q2 (resulting in ~(52)% for H1), including (82)% in April, (76)% in May and an estimated (70)% for June. The small but steady improvements in RevPAR through the second quarter are mostly attributed to the Americas franchised estate and the Greater China region. Occupancy levels in comparable open hotels have improved to over 40% in the US. The Q2 RevPAR decline for the Americas region is estimated at (72)%. The US franchised estate, which benefits from a weighting towards domestic demand-driven mainstream hotels, with a lower reliance on large group business and higher distribution in non-urban markets, is estimated to have declined ~(67)% in Q2. This compares to an estimated ~(87)% decline in Q2 for the US managed estate, which is weighted to luxury and upper upscale hotels in urban markets that individually contribute higher fee revenue than a mainstream franchised hotel. There are 17 of IHG’s 26 owned, leased and managed lease hotels that remain closed, and those that are open are operating at very low occupancies. As a result of these challenging trading conditions, we expect to report first half operating losses before exceptional items in the region of $25m from Owned, Leased and Managed Lease hotels. A gradual reopening of these hotels is currently expected through the third quarter, and once open we expect to experience low occupancies and lower than usual non-room revenues. As confirmed at our Q1 results, we remain on track to reduce fee business costs by $150m from 2019 levels; more than two-thirds of these savings will be delivered in the second half of the year. As at 26 June, IHG continued to have ~$2bn in available liquidity. We have taken steps to protect cash flow by reducing costs and capital expenditure, and by proactively managing our working capital with measures including fee relief and increased payment flexibility for owners, which has resulted in continued payments being received through May and June. We will assess any further need for owner payment flexibility as the trading environment evolves.

Vianet – losses comfortably lower than expected: Actionable data and business information firm Vianet has reported loses are comfortably lower than it expected during the covid-19 lockdown. In a statement to the company’s AGM, chairman James Dickson said: “Thanks to our proactive response to management of C19, the group’s performance in the first two months of the financial year has been very encouraging, with losses comfortably lower than anticipated. On 23 June 2020, the government announced that pubs could re-open from Saturday, 4 July 2020 and that social distancing would be eased from two meters to one meter plus. In our Smart Zones division, whilst some pubs may not re-open immediately and others will take some time to return to more normal levels of trade, the majority of pubs which we service will start to re-open from 4 July 2020 and already our customers are increasingly seeking trading data to improve decision-making during the C19 exit phase. Our recent proposal to provide further temporary pricing relief to our pub company customers has been very well received and will result in billing of around 70% of normal contracted fees for weekly support services until 31 October 2020, after which normal contract terms will resume. Whilst it is too early to fully determine demand, we have also received the first orders for Smart Shield, our recently launched C19 sanitisation service for pubs. All of this is clearly good news for Vianet and our Smart Zones customers, providing clarity and demonstrating a mutual commitment to the C19 recovery phase. In addition to our UK hospitality customers, we are also pleased to say that in North America, our partner AMC Theatres, is planning to re-open in July. In Smart Machines, the decision to increase and accelerate our Q4 2020 investment in additional sales and marketing capabilities and our investment in the product roadmap is already starting to yield results. We have seen strong momentum that we forecast will accelerate our growth during the C19 exit phase. Contracts have been finalised with several new customers, including Tchibo and Lavazza, and there is an encouraging pipeline of new contracts under discussion that are pending customers returning to more normal operations in the coming months. The strong pipeline is being driven by the growing trend away from cash payments, towards connected assets with reduced frequency of site visits and minimised business risk. These strong trends will continue to gain momentum post lockdown, increasing the requirement for remote connection to unattended retail assets and demand for our PCI Master Merchant status, which allows us to speed up the on-boarding of customers for payment capability. Whilst we recognise that the C19 situation is still unpredictable and uncertain, we remain confident that the group is in a very good position to resume its strong earnings growth, continue the solid momentum that was building into FY2021 and deliver on the exciting growth opportunities that we see ahead of us.”