Financial Information

PART II

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES

Cash Requirements and Our Credit Facility

We are party to a multicurrency revolving credit agreement (the “Credit Facility”) that provides for up to $4,000 million of aggregate effective borrowings to support our commercial paper program and general corporate needs, including working capital, capital expenditures, share repurchases, letters of credit, and acquisitions. Borrowings under the Credit Facility generally bear interest at LIBOR (the London Interbank Offered Rate) plus a spread, based on our public debt rating. We also pay quarterly fees on the Credit Facility at a rate based on our public debt rating. While any outstanding commercial paper borrowings and/or borrowings under our Credit Facility generally have short-term maturities, we classify the outstanding borrowings as long-term based on our ability and intent to refinance the outstanding borrowings on a long-term basis. The Credit Facility expires on June 10, 2021.

The Credit Facility contains certain covenants, including a single financial covenant that limits our maximum leverage (consisting of the ratio of Adjusted Total Debt to Consolidated Earnings Before Interest Expense, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (“EBITDA”), each as defined in the Credit Facility) to not more than 4 to 1. Our outstanding public debt does not contain a corresponding financial covenant or a requirement that we maintain certain financial ratios. We currently satisfy the covenants in our Credit Facility and public debt instruments, including the leverage covenant under the Credit Facility, and do not expect the covenants will restrict our ability to meet our anticipated borrowing and guarantee levels or increase those levels should we decide to do so in the future.

We believe the Credit Facility and our access to capital markets, together with cash we expect to generate from operations, remain adequate to meet our short-term and long-term liquidity requirements, finance our long-term growth plans, meet debt service, and fulfill other cash requirements.

We issue commercial paper in the U.S. We do not have purchase commitments from buyers for our commercial paper; therefore, our ability to issue commercial paper is subject to market demand. We classify any outstanding commercial paper and Credit Facility borrowings as long-term based on our ability and intent to refinance them on a long-term basis. We reserve unused capacity under our Credit Facility to repay outstanding commercial paper borrowings if the commercial paper market is not available to us for any reason when outstanding borrowings mature. We do not expect that fluctuations in the demand for commercial paper will affect our liquidity, given our borrowing capacity under the Credit Facility.

At year-end 2017, our available borrowing capacity amounted to $2,010 million and reflected borrowing capacity of $1,627 million under our Credit Facility and our cash balance of $383 million. We calculated that borrowing capacity by taking $4,000 million of effective aggregate bank commitments under our Credit Facility and subtracting $2,373 million of outstanding commercial paper (there being no outstanding letters of credit under our Credit Facility).

We monitor the status of the capital markets and regularly evaluate the effect that changes in capital market conditions may have on our ability to execute our announced growth plans. We expect to continue meeting part of our financing and liquidity needs, primarily through commercial paper borrowings, issuances of Senior Notes, and access to long-term committed credit facilities. If conditions in the lodging industry deteriorate, or if disruptions in the capital markets take place as they did in the immediate aftermath of both the 2008 worldwide financial crisis and the events of September 11, 2001, we may be unable to place some or all of our commercial paper on a temporary or extended basis and may have to rely more on borrowings under the Credit Facility, which we believe will be adequate to fund our liquidity needs, including repayment of debt obligations, but which may carry a higher cost than commercial paper. Since we continue to have ample flexibility under the Credit Facility’s covenants, we expect that undrawn bank commitments under the Credit Facility will remain available to us even if business conditions were to deteriorate markedly.

Cash from Operations

Cash from operations and non-cash items for the last three fiscal years are as follows:

⁽¹⁾   Includes depreciation, amortization, share-based compensation, and deferred income taxes.

Our ratio of current assets to current liabilities was 0.5 to 1.0 at year-end 2017 and 0.7 to 1.0 at year-end 2016. We minimize working capital through cash management, strict credit-granting policies, and aggressive collection efforts. We also have significant borrowing capacity under our Credit Facility should we need additional working capital.

Our ratios of earnings to fixed charges for the last five fiscal years, the calculations of which we detail in Exhibit 12 to this 2017 Annual Report on Form 10-K, are as follows:

For 2018, we plan to invest in our workforce by offering an additional one-time contribution to our retirement savings plans. Structured as a $5-to-$1 company match of up to $1,000, we expect the vast majority of participating associates would receive this incremental company contribution. This contribution will be available to eligible associates at company-operated hotels, as well as those in corporate and regional offices, in the U.S. We also expect to invest in global associate support programs. We estimate an overall cost of $140 million for these investments in our workforce, with approximately $70 million of that amount coming from proceeds from the 2017 sale of our interest in Avendra.