intercontinental hotels group plc said tuesday that it was launching a 750 million share buyback program for 2023 as it reported a rise in 2022 pretax profit driven by strong demand but missed consensus the owner of the crowne plaza and holiday inn hotel brands ihg posted a pretax profit of 540 million compared with a pretax profit of 361 million for 2021 visible alpha pretax profit consensus was 675 million jefferies analysts said in a note the company said its performance improved in each quarter of the year driven by strong leisure demand supported by improved corporate and group bookings in the second half total net profit was 375 million compared with a net profit of 266 million the year before the ftse100 company said revenue rose to 389 billion from 291 billion the year prior analysts at jefferies said visible alpha revenue consensus was 404 billion revenue per available room–a closely watched metric used in the hotel industry–grew 26 in the fourth quarter and 37 for the full year the board declared an interim dividend of 945 cents compared with 859 cents the year prior taking the final dividend for the year to 1384 cents “while the economic outlook has some continued challenges and uncertainties current conditions including employment consumer savings and business activity levels remain supportive to the industry” the company said