Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR) today reported third quarter 2016 results.

On September 23, 2016, Marriott completed its acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (Starwood). The discussion in the first section below reflects reported results for the third quarter as calculated in accordance with US generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).  To further assist investors, the company is also providing (a) adjusted results that exclude Starwood results from September 23 to September 30, 2016, as well as merger-related costs; and (b) selected pro forma information for the third quarter that assumes Marriott’s acquisition of Starwood and Starwood’s sale of its timeshare business had been completed on January 1, 2015, but uses the estimated fair value of assets and liabilities as of the actual closing date of the acquisition.

Arne M. Sorenson, president and chief executive officer of Marriott International, said, “We were thrilled to close the acquisition of Starwood in late September. We are enthusiastically engaged in welcoming Starwood’s associates around the world into the Marriott family and are working diligently on integrating the companies and realizing revenue and cost synergies as quickly as possible.

“We’ve already had a big win on the integration front. The day the acquisition closed, we offered status match to our more than 85 million combined loyalty members, along with the ability to transfer and redeem points between Marriott Rewards, which includes The Ritz-Carlton Rewards, and Starwood Preferred Guest, the industry’s leading loyalty programs.  In mid-October, we also announced an industry-first benefit for members of our co-brand credit cards, letting members earn bonus points for stays at hotels across all 30 brands.  In just a few short weeks after closing, our most loyal guests are already reaping the most important benefits of the merger and they are telling us they love it.

“Looking forward to 2017, we expect systemwide constant dollar RevPAR for the combined portfolio will be flat to up 2 percent in North America, outside North America and worldwide. Our group booking pace at company-operated North American full-service hotels for 2017 is up 2 percent with about 70 percent of 2017 expected group business volume booked thus far.  While special corporate rate negotiations are still underway, we expect room rates for comparable customers will increase at a mid-single digit rate in most markets.

“The Marriott and Starwood development teams continued their great work in the quarter, delivering a combined global pipeline of nearly 420,000 rooms, over half of which are outside North America. Given this strong development pipeline, we anticipate 6 percent worldwide net room additions in 2017.

“We remain committed to our asset-light strategy, which should deliver meaningful management and franchise fees in 2017. On a pro forma basis assuming the Starwood acquisition and Starwood’s sale of its timeshare business had closed on January 1, 2015, Marriott anticipates earning more than $2.8 billion in fee revenue for full year 2016.  In addition, as part of that asset-light strategy, we are working toward generating more than $1.5 billion from asset sales over the next two years, in transactions where we expect to retain long-term operating agreements.  Based on our preliminary estimates for the combined company, we believe we are already within our targeted leverage range of 3 to 3.25x adjusted debt to adjusted EBITDAR, excluding merger-related costs and charges.  Given our continued strong, sustainable cash flow, we expect to resume share repurchases in the 2016 fourth quarter.”