InterContinental Hotels Group Resources, Inc. history

Pan American Airways founder Juan Trippe established the InterContinental brand as a division of PanAm and opened the first hotel in Belém, Brazil in 1946.

In 1981, holding company InterContinental Hotels Corporation (IHC) was sold to UK-based company Grand Metropolitan.

The FT30 Index is the oldest of the indices, and was created to track the UK’s top 30 companies. It was replaced in 1984 with the FTSE100, where IHG is listed today.

As GrandMet focused its core business and expanded into fast food through the purchase of Burger King, it sold IHC to Japanese based Saison Group in 1988.

In 1989, the British Government limited the number of pubs which brewers could directly own, resulting in Bass investing in the expansion of its small line of hotels.

In 1990, it purchased Holiday Inn International from Kemmons Wilson and expanded into North America.

In March 1998, Saison Group sold IHC to British brewery Bass, which traces its roots back to 1777, when William Bass established the Bass Brewery in Burton-upon-Trent.

In 2000, Bass sold its brewing assets (and the rights to the Bass name) to the major Belgian brewer Interbrew for £2.3 billion and changed its name to Six Continents.

Welcoming athletes and spectators from all over the world, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express serve as official hotel services providers to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

In April/May 2014 the company reportedly rejected a $10 billion takeover bid from an unknown suitor, believed to be Starwood.”