IHG confident for the year, lifts dividend

* IHG confident of meeting targets despite uncertainties

* Lifts interim dividend by 9 percent

* Has only limited exposure to France (Adds CFO, analysts comments, details, share movement)

By Esha Vaish

Aug 2 (Reuters) - Intercontinental Hotels Group said it was confident of meeting market expectations this year after a resilient performance in the Americas helped to boost room revenue in the three months to the end of June.

The company reported growth in revenue per available room (RevPAR), a key industry measure, of 2.5 percent for the three months ended June 30, an increase from 1.5 percent in the first quarter.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in IHG, which runs over 5,000 hotels under brands such as Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and InterContinental, were up 2.8 percent at 3099 pence at 0950 GMT, outperforming the FTSE bluechip index, which was down 0.6 percent.

The company also increased its interim dividend by nine percent to 30 U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . cents per share.

"Despite the uncertain environment in some markets, we remain confident in the outlook for the remainder of the year,"

said CEO Richard Solomons.

The company's operating profit rose 2 percent to $344 million in the six months to June 30, beating analysts' average estimate of $313 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

In oil-producing American states, part of IHG's largest geography, RevPAr dropped 6.3 percent, an improvement on the 10.3 percent fall in the first quarter.

"IHG is our only "outperform" rated hotel stock," Credit Suisse analysts wrote, flagging a smaller-than-expected drag from weakness in U.S. oil producing states.

LIMITED EXPOSURE TO FRANCE

Chief Financial Officer Paul Edgecliffe-Johnson said he expected demand in France to suffer following the attack in Nice in July. However, he said France accounts for only about 1 percent of IHG's revenue.

Facing growing competition from online apartment-sharing startups such as Airbnb, hoteliers are consolidating.

France's AccorHotels bought the owner of luxury hotels such as London's Savoy, while Marriott International (NasdaqGS: MAR - news) purchased Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (NYSE: HOT - news) .

Accor (EUREX: 485822.EX - news) has also been expanding into hospitality and online rental services.

Edgecliffe-Johnson said IHG now had the capacity to go it alone, pointing to strong growth opportunities including the expansion of the recently acquired boutique brand Kimpton.

Europe was another key driver of IHG's results, helped by strong growth in Germany, Russia and the UK regions.

The UK regions had stayed strong ahead of Britain's vote to leave the EU, Edgecliffe-Johnson said, adding that it was too early to say whether Brexit would hurt demand.

The company is seeing a currency benefit after the fall in sterling against the dollar after the June 23 vote.

Although the UK accounts for about 5 percent of IHG's revenues, sterling makes up about 50 percent of the company's gross central overheads.

(Reporting by Esha Vaish in Bengaluru; Editing by Keith Weir)