Accor Profit More Than Doubles on Property Sales

Accor SA, the world's second-largest hotel company, said first-half profit more than doubled on the sale of properties and higher revenue in Europe at the Sofitel luxury chain. The company's shares rose 5.9 percent. The Paris-based owner of Novotel and Ibis hotels said net income climbed to 596 million euros ($810 million), or 2.66 euros a share, from 241 million euros, or 1.06 euros, a year earlier. That beat the 237 million-euro median estimate from eight analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Accor also said it will buy back 500 million euros of its stock.