In 1991 the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and "Operation Desert Storm" nearly brought international travel to a standstill. In addition, the Japanese economy was in a recession. SAS and Saison interests were too far apart. In early 1992 Saison reorganized its group and Seiyu Ltd., a Saison Group company became the chief shareholder of InterContinental. In April 1992, Seiyu bought out the SAS position in InterContinental, which was reorganized again. Inter-Continental Hotels and Resorts was introduced as the company's new corporate name (the hyphen dropped later).