Huazhu Group Limited has announced its unaudited financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2021.
As of March 31, 2021, Huazhu’s worldwide hotel network in operation totaled 6,881 hotels and 662,512 rooms, including 120 hotels from DH. During the first quarter of 2021, Legacy-Huazhu business opened 209 hotels, including 2 leased (or leased-and-operated) hotels and 207 manachised (or franchised-and-managed) hotels and franchised hotels, and closed a total of 117 hotels, including 19 leased hotels and 98 manachised and franchised hotels. During the first quarter of 2021, the Legacy-DH business opened 1 leased hotels and closed 1 manachised and franchised hotel. As of March 31, 2021, Huazhu had a total of 2,649 unopened hotels in the pipeline, including 2,608 hotels from the Legacy-Huazhu business and 41 hotels from the Legacy-DH business.
Highlights include:
· A total of 6,881 hotels or 662,512 hotel rooms in operation as of March 31, 2021.
· Hotel turnover increased 66.3% year-over-year to RMB8.2 billion for the first quarter. Excluding Steigenberger Hotels AG and its subsidiaries (“DH”), hotel turnover increased 113.4% year-over-year for the first quarter.
· Net revenues increased 15.6% year-over-year to RMB2.3 billion (US$355 million) for the first quarter, better than revenue guidance previously announced of 8% to 10%. Excluding DH, net revenues for the first quarter increased 68.8% year-over-year, better than revenue guidance previously announced of 61% to 63%.
· Net loss attributable to Huazhu Group Limited was RMB248 million (US$38 million) for the first quarter of 2021, compared with a RMB2.1 billion loss for the first quarter of 2020 and net income attributable to Huazhu Group Limited of RMB703 million in the previous quarter. Net income attributable to Huazhu Group Limited from Legacy-Huazhu was RMB53 million for the first quarter of 2021.
· Excluding share-based compensation expenses and unrealized gains (losses) from fair value changes of equity securities, adjusted net loss attributable to Huazhu Group Limited (non-GAAP) for the first quarter of 2021 was RMB451 million (US$70 million), compared with RMB1.1 billion for the first quarter of 2020. Adjusted net loss attributable to Huazhu Group Limited (non-GAAP) from Legacy-Huazhu for the first quarter of 2021 was RMB150 million.
· EBITDA (non-GAAP) for the first quarter of 2021 was RMB70 million (US$11 million), compared with negative RMB1.7 billion for the first quarter of 2020. EBITDA from Legacy-Huazhu (non-GAAP) was RMB410 million for the first quarter of 2021, compared with negative RMB1.7 billion for the first quarter of 2020.
· Excluding share-based compensation expenses and unrealized gains (losses) from fair value changes of equity securities, adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) was negative RMB133 million (US$21 million) for the first quarter of 2021. Adjusted EBITDA from Legacy-Huazhu (non-GAAP) was RMB207 million for the first quarter of 2021.
· In the second quarter of 2021, Huazhu expects net revenues growth to be in the range of 87%-89% compared to the second quarter of 2020, or 90%-92% if excluding DH. To provide a more meaningful guidance excluding the impact of COVID-19, Huazhu expects net revenue growth to be in the range of 27%-29% compared to pre-COVID-19 results in the second quarter of 2019, or 20%-22% if excluding DH.
Legacy-Huazhu Only – First Quarter of 2021 Operational Highlights
As of March 31, 2021, Legacy-Huazhu had 6,761 hotels in operation, including 664 leased and owned hotels, and 6,097 manachised hotels and franchised hotels. In addition, as of the same date, Legacy-Huazhu had 638,619 hotel rooms in operation, including 89,901 under the lease and ownership model, and 548,718 under the manachise and franchise models. Legacy-Huazhu also had 2,608 hotels in the pipeline, including 19 leased and owned hotels and 2,589 manachised and franchised hotels. The following discusses Legacy-Huazhu’s RevPAR, average daily room rate (“ADR”) and occupancy rate for its leased and owned hotels, as well as manachised and franchised hotels (excluding hotels under governmental requisition) for the periods indicated.
Legacy-DH Only – First Quarter of 2021 Operational Highlights
As of March 31, 2021, Legacy-DH had 120 hotels in operation, including 73 leased and owned hotels and 47 manachised hotels and franchised hotels. In addition, as of the same date, Legacy-DH had 23,893 hotel rooms in operation, including 13,527 under the lease and ownership model and 10,366 under the manachise and franchise models. Legacy-DH also had 41 hotels in the pipeline, including 27 leased and owned hotels and 14 manachised and franchised hotels. The following discusses Legacy-DH’s RevPAR, ADR and occupancy rate for its leased as well as manachised and franchised hotels (excluding hotels temporarily closed) for the periods indicated.
Ji Qi, Founder, Executive Chairman and CEO of Huazhu commented: “Despite the COVID-19 resurgence and 'stay local' guidance pressuring our RevPAR recovery in January and February, we are very pleased to see the recovery quickly resumed since later March at an even stronger pace. Our April RevPAR recovered to the same pre-COVID-19 level of 2019, and RevPAR over the Labor Day holiday in China recorded an increase of over 25% as compared with the same period of 2019. We believe that both strong business and leisure demand will continue to drive the future recovery. For our European operations, although the business remains under pressure due to COVID-19, we see that the German government is gradually relaxing the travelling restrictions with certain conditions. We expect to see gradual recovery starting from this summer along with the progress of vaccination campaigns.”
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