Adopt Localized Measures and Deeply Tap Business Potential;
Continue to Maintain Market Leadership
Jinmao Hotel and Jinmao (China) Hotel Investments and Management Limited (“Jinmao Hotel” or the “Company”, together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”, stock code: 6139.HK) today announced its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2019 (the “Review Period”).
During the Review Period, in the context of Sino-US trade frictions, the Chinese economy faces a difficult external environment. Together with the inadequacies and imbalance problems in respect of China’s own development, the difficulty of stabilising growth and preventing risk has been increasing. Under the pressure of gloomy macroeconomy, the Group directly confronted the crisis by constantly improving the quality of its properties and services, actively integrating resources, and deeply tapped into its business potential so as to maintain market leadership. The Group generated total revenue of RMB1,219 million, with a profit attributable to Holders of Share Stapled Units of RMB166 million and the basic earnings per Share Stapled Unit of RMB0.08. Excluding the fair value gains on investment properties, profit attributable to the Holders of Share Stapled Units amounted to RMB85 million. The Boards have resolved to declare an interim distribution of HK16.60 cents per Share Stapled Units, based on the total Trust Distributable Income of RMB287 million (equivalent to approximately HK$332 million) for the Review Period.
For the hotel operations segment, in the first half of 2019, due to the combined effects of the overall economic downturn and the increase in market supply, the occupancy of high star-level hotels in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Lijiang have shown a year-on-year decline. The occupancy in Sanya’s overall market recorded a slight increase, but the occupancy in Yalong Bay decreased by almost 9%. The room rates of high star-level hotels in the abovementioned cities have all dropped except for the hotels in Lijiang.
Faced with the tough market environment, the Group’s hotels adopted localized measures, and deeply tapped into their business potential. Striving to increase revenue by adjusting the customer mix externally, and changing their operating philosophy to create differentiated products internally, the hotels adopted flexible sales strategies to optimise their customer mix, while controlling costs and expenses, improving floor efficiency, and stabilising the profit level, thus maintaining their leading market positions within their respective Comp Set in the same region. During the Review Period, revenue from the hotel operations segment amounted to RMB882 million and EBITDA amounted to RMB284 million.
In relation to property leasing, affected by factors such as domestic and international economic conditions and the decentralisation of enterprises, the demand for leasing in the central business district continued to weaken with a net outflow. The vacancy rate reached a new high in recent years. The business situation was grim. With high quality of the property and professional services, the Company’s leasing team withstood the pressure and pulled back the occupancy to a high of 93% through a flexible leasing strategy, deep internal potential tapping and active external cooperation, far exceeding the average level of surrounding competitor buildings. During the Review Period, for the commercial leasing segment, revenue amounted to RMB231 million and EBTIDA amounted to RMB227 million.
Despite a sluggish tourism economic environment and intensifying market competition, the Observation Deck on the 88th floor of Jin Mao Tower, through measures such as optimising the customer mix, increasing efforts in market development, strengthening IP alliances and continuously improving media exposure, generated revenue of RMB35 million in the first half of this year, representing an increase of 9% as compared to the same period of last year.
During the Review Period, the Group accelerated business innovation and successfully held the first Culture Week of Jinmao Hotel Sojourn and Brand Launch celebration in Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Lijiang, Yunnan in January 2019. The Company also officially launched its own Jinmao Hotel brand. With the theme of “A Stop, A Start”, the Company let each traveler experience a new definition of hotel and another possibility of the sojourn platform, demonstrating the strategic innovation of the Company’s sojourn ecology.
Adhering to its strategy of “balance between asset-light and asset-heavy businesses combined with long-term and short-term investments”, the Company steadily developed its asset-light business with contracts successfully signed for a number of projects. Jinmao Hotel Xi’an Central was opened on 28 July, marking the launch of Jinmao’s first self-operated hotel. In the future, Jinmao Hotel Xi’an Central will strive to maintain the “Jinmao” quality and establish itself as the most distinctive boutique hotel in Xi’an. What is more, Jinmao Baoshan Executive Apartment is expected to open by the end of this year.
Looking to the second half of 2019, in relation to hotel operation, the Company will maintain its high-performance orientation and enhance the profitability of stock asset hotels with floor efficiency as a key measure, so as to maintain its market leadership. Meanwhile, it will accelerate the pace of the maturity of incremental assets, shorten the performance ramp-up period, and quickly provide the Company with stable cash flow contributions. The Company will continue to build its direct sales platform, enhance product availability in the online shopping mall, conform to the market promotion trends, actively expand distribution channels for its hotels and tap into the potential customer source markets. In relation to the office premises, the Company will continue to focus on the principle of occupancy first. On one hand, the Company will continue to increase the marketing efforts towards quality customers in the building, stimulate the demand for lease expansion, stabilise tenants and increase the rented spaces, and reduce commission expenses. On the other hand, it will further implement channel segregation for vacant spaces in the building, and carry out precision marketing to improve the customer capture ratio. At the same time, the Company will continue to maintain close cooperation with government authorities, make good use of the platform for government-enterprise cooperation, attract more high-quality enterprises to take up leases, and achieve effective linkage between building leasing and regional efforts to attract investors. In respect of the Observation Deck on the 88th floor of Jin Mao Tower, it will continue to focus on word-of-mouth promotion, service improvement and product upgrade, seeking to improve business and operations results by increasing the share of contribution from individual visitors.
Mr. LI Congrui, Chairman and Non-executive Director of Jinmao Hotel, said: “Generally, China’s macroeconomic policies have seen effects in terms of countercyclical adjustments, but still there is room for ‘further’ follow-up improvement. The domestic tourism market is currently undergoing an active transformation from traditional sight-seeing tourism to leisure- and vacation-oriented tourism. The increase in the spending sentiment of tourists will continue to promote the positive development of the domestic tourism market and bring new growth opportunities to the hotel industry. The Group will persist in being customer-oriented and facilitate the integration of mobile Internet and traditional business to provide convenient and thoughtful high-quality services to customers so as to enhance consumer satisfaction, and develop the most outstanding and leading hotel portfolio in the industry. With the hotel business as its core, the Group will deeply tap into the potential values of its assets and continue improving its asset management business. Meanwhile, the Group will continue to seek out commercial properties with strategic values, and proactively improve its asset-light and asset-heavy business with a combination of long-term and short-term investments to ensure the steady growth of the Company’s performance. We are determined to create greater value for all Holders of Share Stapled Unites with more remarkable performance.”
About Jinmao Hotel and Jinmao (China) Hotel Investments and Management Limited
Jinmao Hotel and Jinmao (China) Hotel Investments and Management Limited (“Jinmao Hotel”, stock code: 06139.HK), formerly known as Jinmao Investments and Jinmao (China) Investments Holdings Limited, is a fixed, single investment trust with an initial focus on the hospitality industry in the PRC. Jinmao Hotel primarily owns and invests in a portfolio of hotels with diversified income sources and customer mixes from a portfolio of high quality hotels and commercial properties, comprising 8 hotels and Jin Mao Tower, a mixed-use development. The properties are all located in prime, strategic locations in top-tier cities or tourist hot spots across the PRC, and comprise high quality hotels and commercial property. Adhering to its high-end, boutique positioning, the Jinmao Hotel has been investing in and operating hotels in Shanghai, Beijing, Sanya and other regions, enjoying strong brand recognition and a market leading position, and will continue to improve the operational efficiency of its properties and seek asset enhancement opportunities for further development. Jinmao Hotel’s portfolio of hotels includes: Jin Mao Tower (Level 53-87 being Grand Hyatt Shanghai), Hilton Sanya Yalong Bay Resort & Spa, The Ritz-Carlton Sanya, Yalong Bay, The Westin Beijing Chaoyang, JW Marriott Hotel Shenzhen, Hyatt Regency Chongming, Renaissance Beijing Wangfujing Hotel, and Lijiang Jinmao Hotels.
