GreenTree Hospitality Group - H1 2023

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by for GreenTree's first half 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After management's prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the meeting over to your host for today's call, Mr. René Vanguestaine of Christensen, GreenTree's Investor Relations firm. Please proceed, René.

René Vanguestaine (Chairman and CEO)

Thank you, Ashley. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us. GreenTree's earnings release was distributed earlier today and is available on our IR website at ir.998.com, as well as on PR Newswire services. As a reminder, we also posted a PowerPoint presentation that accompanies our comments to the same IR website. On the call from GreenTree are Mr. Alex Xu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Ms. Selina Yang, Chief Financial Officer. Ms. Megan Huang, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Mr. Bill Zhu, Financial Director of the Restaurant Business. Mr. Xu will present the company's performance overview of the first half of 2023, followed by Ms. Huang and Mr. Zhu, who will discuss business operations, and Ms. Yang and Mr. Zhu will then discuss financials and guidance. They will all be available to answer your questions during the Q&A session, which follows.

Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that this conference call contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as may, will, expect, anticipate, aims, future, intends, plans, believes, estimates, continue, target, is or are likely to, going forward, confident, outlook, and similar statements. Any statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the company and its industry, are forward-looking statements.

Such statements are based upon management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions, and relate to events that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict, and many of which are beyond the company's control, which may cause the company's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties, or factors is included in the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided, including the forward-looking statements made during this conference call, are current as of today's date. The company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required under applicable law.

It is now my pleasure to introduce our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Alex Xu. Mr. Xu, please go ahead.

Alex Xu (Chairman and CEO)

Thanks, René. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. 2023 marked a new start of the post-COVID recovery in the economy across China. RevPAR, compared to the same period of 2019, reached more than 100% at the beginning of February, exceeding our expectations as demand for business travel rebounded after the Spring Festival. During the second quarter, especially during the National Labor Day holiday early in May, it reached more than 115%, and during the summer vacation, it was almost stable at 110% as the tourism further expanded. As we did throughout the pandemic, we continued to execute our long-term strategic growth plan that strives to assist the franchisees in maintaining quality operations, extend our hotel network, deliver stable operating profitability, and maintaining healthy cash flow. Please turn to Slide 5.

Compared with the first half of 2022, hotel RevPAR was CNY 130, up 35.8%, and the restaurant ADR, that is average daily sales per store, was CNY 6,213, up 22.9%. Total revenues were CNY 794.2 million, up 12.1%. The increase was partially due to the recovery in RevPAR, the increase in the number of hotels, and the increase in the restaurant average daily sales, partially offset by the closure of the 64 restaurants. Income from operations turned positive at CNY 150.9 million, with a margin of 19%. Net income was CNY 177.3 million, with a margin of 22.3%.

Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP, was CNY 226.9 million, up 137.8%, with a margin of 28.6%. Core net income, non-GAAP, was CNY 136.1 million, with a margin of 17.1%. Cash provided by operating activities was CNY 313.1 million. Slide 6 shows detailed numbers for total revenues, income from operations, net income, and adjusted EBITDA. On Slide 7, operating performance greatly improved during the first half of 2023. RevPAR was CNY 120 and CNY 141 in the first and second quarter, respectively. At the bottom of the Slide, you can see the weekly RevPAR performance in the first half of 2023, compared with 2019.

In the first half of 2023, due to the recovery from COVID-19, RevPAR exceeded 124% of its pre-pandemic levels after Spring Festival. Thanks to the stable recovery in demand and in the economy, RevPAR gradually recovered to more than 100% of it, of its pre-pandemic levels in the Labor Day Golden Week of 2023. While the RevPAR recovery slowed during the Dragon Boat Festival, it resumed a growth and a stable development trend again in the summer vacation as travel soared. Slide 8 shows operating performance of the restaurants. ADS had a good trend in the first half of 2023. Now, starting with Slide 10, let's talk about the strategy and the execution of hotels, with a further expansion in the mid to upscale segment on the Tier 3 and the lower cities in South China.

Besides, we are continuously adding L&O hotels in strategic locations. Let's take a look at the Slide 11. We have been continuously growing our mid to upscale segment over the past few years. For an apple-to-apple comparison, we have excluded the Argyle and Urban hotels. By the end of the first half of 2023, we had 438 hotels, 10.7% of our total portfolio in the mid to upscale segment, up from only 50 in 2017, and we plan to open more this year. While the mid-scale segment remains the core of our business, with the 71.4% of all of our hotels, we continued our expansion into the higher end segments.

By the end of the second quarter, mid- to upscale hotels accounted for 10.7% of our total portfolio, while the economy segment remained stable at 17.9%. Please turn to Slide 12. Over the past five years, most of our new hotels have been in China's thriving Tier 3 and the lower cities. In addition, hotels in some lower-tier cities are performing well. As we continue to execute our strategic plan, 73.3% of hotels in our current pipelines are in such cities, and we will further capitalize on the substantial opportunities in such locations. On Slide 13, during the first half of 2023, we opened three L&O hotels at Chongqing North Railway Station, Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport, and Shenzhen Futian Huaqiangbei. All of our L&O hotels are located around transportation hubs, central business district, or government centers.

By showcasing our brand and operating standards, we believe that these hotels will help us attract more high-quality franchisees, further contributing to growth. Slide 14. Our strategy for our restaurant business focuses on increasing profitability with the closing of unprofitable stores and expansion in the proportion of franchised and managed restaurants, and growing the numbers of street stores. On Slide 15, during the first half of 2023, we closed 64 restaurants in areas of decreased economic activities and reduced foot traffic, helping improve the overall profitability of our restaurant businesses. On Slide 16, you can see the growth in the proportion of franchised and managed restaurants following the acquisition of Da Niang Dumplings and the Bellagio during the first quarter of 2023. Slide 17 shows that currently, most of our restaurants are in the shopping malls.

However, we believe there is a substantial potential for street stores, and we intend to develop more in this format. I want to focus, I want to emphasize that in the new era, we're strategically, strategically focusing on growing high quality hotels and restaurants to build a better and a stronger foundation for future growth. Now, let me turn the call over to Megan and Mr. Zhu.

Megan Huang (VP of Sales and Marketing)

Thank you, Alex. Please turn to Slide 18 to start reviewing the operating and financial highlights. Slide 19 shows the trend in our quarterly operating performance. In the second quarter of 2023, RevPAR for our L&O hotels increased to CNY 190. RevPAR for our F&M hotels increased to CNY 139. ADR for our L&O hotels increased to CNY 265, and ADR for our F&M hotels increased to CNY 179. Occupancy at our L&O hotels increased to 74.6%, and occupancy at our F&M hotels increased to 77.9%. Slide 20 highlights the growth in our membership programs, which accounted for the most of our direct sales.

Individual memberships grew to 84 million, up from 74 million a year ago, and corporate memberships grew to 1.99 million, up from 1.91 million a year ago.

Bill Zhu (Financial Director of Restaurant Business)

Now, please turn to Slide 21. In the restaurant business, the number of individual members grew to 2.67 million, up 2.3% year-over-year. ADS increased to 57.3% to CNY 6,371 in the second quarter of 2023 compared to one year before. With that, I will pass the call over to our CFO, Selina Yang.

Selina Yang (CFO)

Thank you, Bill. First, let's review our hotel business. Please turn to Slide 22. In the first half, total hotel revenues increased 23.1% year-over-year, to CNY 563.2 million. The increase was primarily due to the recovery in RevPAR and increase in the number of hotels. Total hotel revenues increased 23% to CNY 310.6 million in the second quarter of 2023, compared with the first quarter. Total revenues from F&M hotels were CNY 347.4 million, up 26.1% year-over-year. While total revenues from L&O hotels increased 24.7% to CNY 213.6 million. On Slide 23, total hotel operating costs and expenses decreased 54.7% year-over-year to CNY 416.6 million.

Excluding other general expenses, total hotel operating costs and expenses also decreased to 2.8% year-over-year, and total hotel operating costs and expenses increased to 5% to CNY 213.3 million in the second quarter, compared with the first quarter. Total costs and expenses are composed of hotel operating costs, selling and marketing expenses, general and administrative expenses. Operating costs were CNY 284.4 million, down 7.6% year-over-year. The decrease was mainly due to the deconsolidation of Argyle and disposal of our interest in Urban, and partially offset by higher consumables, higher utilities due to the recovery from COVID-19, and higher rents with lower exemptions compared to last year. Operating costs increased to 11.8% to CNY 150.1 million in the second quarter, compared with the first quarter.

Selling and marketing expenses were CNY 24.8 million, a year-over-year increase of 31.8%. The increase was mainly attributable to higher sales channel commissions, higher sales staff salaries, and higher travel expenses. The selling and marketing expenses increased 24.3% to CNY 13.8 million in the second quarter of 2023, compared with the first quarter. General and administrative expenses were CNY 90.5 million in the first half of 2023, down 9.2%, compared with the first half of last year. The decrease was mainly due to, due to the deconsolidation of Argyle and disposal of our interest in Urban, and partially offset by higher consulting fees and higher staff-related expenses.

The G&A expenses decreased 3.6% to CNY 44.4 million in the second quarter of this year, compared with the first quarter. Turning to Slide 24, income from hotel operations was CNY 160.4 million, and income from hotel operations increased 108.7% to CNY 108.5 million in the second quarter of 2023, compared with the first quarter. Net income of hotels was CNY 191.8 million. Net income of hotels increased to 138.4% to CNY 135.1 million in the second quarter of 2023, compared with the first quarter.

Adjusted EBITDA increased 127.5% to CNY 212.2 million, and core net income increased 42% to CNY 150.4 million. Now, let me turn this call over to Bill, our Financial Director of Restaurant Business.

Bill Zhu (Financial Director of Restaurant Business)

Now, let's review our restaurant business. Please turn to Slide 25. In the first half of 2023, total restaurant revenue were CNY 127.2 million and CNY 104.9 million in the first and the second quarter of 2023, respectively. You can also see the revenue breakdown for F&M restaurants and L&O restaurants. On Slide 26, total operation, operating costs and expenses decreased 9.9% year-over-year to CNY 242 million, and the total restaurant operating costs and expenses decreased 9.7% to CNY 114.9 million. In the second quarter of 2023 compared with the first quarter, you can also observe the downtrend in material costs, personnel costs, and rent.

Turning to Slide 27, income from restaurant operations was -CNY 9 million in the first half of 2023. Income from restaurant operation was CNY 0.6 million and -CNY 9.6 million in the first quarter and the second quarter of 2023, respectively. Net income was -CNY 14.1 million in the first half of 2023. Net income decreased to -CNY 11.9 million in the second quarter of 2023, compared with -CNY 2.2 million of the first quarter. Adjusted EBITDA increased 473.1% to CNY 15.2 million. Core net income was -CNY 13.9 million. Next, Selina, please introduce the profitability of our group.

Selina Yang (CFO)

Please turn to Slide 28. Group net income per ADS, basic and diluted, was CNY 1.79. Group core net income per ADS, basic and diluted non-GAAP, was CNY 1.33. Let's now take a look at Slide 29. As of June 30, 2023, the company had total cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, short-term investments, investments in equity securities, and time deposits of CNY 1,440.1 million, compared to CNY 1,119.4 million as of December 31st, 2022. The increase was primarily due to cash flow from operating activities, repayment for franchisees, proceeds for disposal of subsidiaries, and partially offset by the repayment of bank loans and investment in properties.

On Slide 30, taking into account the recovery long-term trends and short-term industry fluctuations, we expect total revenues of organic hotels for the full year of 2023 to grow 30%-35% of the 2022 levels. Total revenues for our restaurant business and our organic hotel business for the full year of 2023, are expected to grow 15%-20% over the 2022 levels. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, we are now ready to begin the Q&A session. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touch tone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Your first question comes from [Jiao Ju] with [Xinjiang Capital]. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Hello, management. As we know, in March, catering was incorporated into the listed company. Can you introduce the recovery of catering? Thank you.

Selina Yang (CFO)

Okay, thank you for your question. Our Financial Director, Bill, will answer this question.

Bill Zhu (Financial Director of Restaurant Business)

The restaurant sales compared to 2019 sales recovered 18%, and compared to 2022, the sales recovered 100.7%. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one. We will now pause momentarily to allow questioners to enter the queue. Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one. Thank you. Your next question comes from [Daisy Zhu] with UBS. Please go ahead.

Speaker 9

Hi. Hello, everyone. Hello to the management. Could you give us some color and guidance on the RevPAR in Q3, Q4 2023 and 2024? Thank you.

Selina Yang (CFO)

Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your question. So let me first to answer your question. As Alex introduced just now, in the summer vacation, the RevPAR in July and August kept stable about 110% of the 2019 levels. And we see that, yes, in September, the RevPAR decreased a little bit due to the seasonality fluctuation. So, for the fourth quarter, yes, we forecasted the RevPAR recovery also keep the stable level of the 2019 levels. That is about 10%, 10% increased by the 2019 levels. Okay.

For the RevPAR for next year, I think yes, it's a little bit difficult for us to forecast it for the long term. For the long-term trend, yes, we can see a good trend because of the recovery of the industry and especially from some locations in the year of 2023. Thank you.

Alex Xu (Chairman and CEO)

So let me add a couple more comments here. The Q3 performance is better than Q2, based on the first two and a half months. That's July, August, and September, a substantial improvement over the Q2. The trend in the Q4 will stabilize, because our hotel portfolio focuses primarily on the, you know, have a lot more on the Tier 3, Tier 4 cities. I think the Tier 3, Tier 4 cities' performance are very stable, even they are stable during the past three years of COVID, you know, control period.

That, so their performance, we expect to be continuously, you know, improving and stable over the next few years, especially China's policy has been focusing on revitalization of the countryside and also encouraging job growth in those two, you know, Tier 3, Tier 4 cities. So, even though the recovery after the post-COVID period, we see the performance much better in the first-tier cities because there is new, you know, many new conventions, and people have been traveling to the, you know, first-tier cities for business, and for, you know, exchange. But we think the trend for the future growth will continuously, you know, reach out to the Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities. Okay.

Speaker 9

Thank you very much.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Your next question comes from [Adam Xu] with China Cinda Securities. Please go ahead. Adam Xu, your line is now live. Please proceed with your question. Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one. Thank you. Your next question comes from Simon Cheung with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Simon Cheung (Managing Director)

Hi, Alex, and Selina, and also, thanks for the presentation. I got a couple questions. One, just on the hotel. I saw that, you know, you did a decent 38% EBITDA margin for the business. And I remember, before COVID, you were hovering at about 50%. Just wanted to get a sense, you know, the difference between the two. I know there's actually some mix change and closure or deconsolidation of some of the business, but wanted to get a sense whether you feel that once your RevPAR, and by the way, your RevPAR is already over 100%, 100% anyway, do you feel that you can go back to 50% on the hotel business? That's first questions.

Then on the second question on hotels, so you have been closing down, call it 50, 60 restaurants every six months. And that you finally get to break even level. Then I guess the question is, how many closures or do you have any targets as to how many restaurants you're gonna be running? And you know, when are you, what's our profitability level you feel comfortable maybe in one or two years time? Thank you.

Alex Xu (Chairman and CEO)

Okay. Got it.

Selina Yang (CFO)

Thank you, Simon. Thank you for your question. So, this is Selina. Yes, let me introduce this, the background relating to your first question about the EBITDA margin of the core of the hotel business. Yes, you, that's very correct. Previously, our EBITDA margin was as high as 50%, but in the first half 2020 of this year, our EBITDA margin was about 38%. Even though it recovered greatly from the COVID-19, however, still lower than our than before. There are two reasons. The first one is due to our newly opened leased-and-operated hotels in the COVID, during the COVID-19, okay?

According to our calculations, the impact of our newly opened leased-and-operated hotels was -10% of the EBITDA margin. That means, if we excluding the impact from our unprofitable, newly opened leased-and-operated hotels, our EBITDA margin was about 48.7%. Okay, that's nearly 10 higher than now. Okay.

Alex Xu (Chairman and CEO)

Simon, let me add a couple more points to Selina's answers. Compared to the pre-COVID area, we have the margin. We see a dip because our take rate is also a little bit reduced from the pre, again, from the pre-pandemic levels for the following reasons. One, the competition now is heating up. In order to support the franchisees, we lower overall our CRS fees, potentially. That's one. Secondly, because the last three years we have not really forced the standardization of the renovation of the older hotels. With the 2023 post-COVID, we started actually enforcing and starting the renovation of hotels.

During the renovation, we typically gave six months to a year of free, you know, the waiving of certain fees, especially if they upgrade to a different version. So and then, those two factors also added a little bit more reduced of the top line, even though the RevPAR on the group that recovered more than the 2019 levels. So that's also added to the reduction of the margin. Okay. Regarding the restaurants, let me, you know, give Bill the opportunity to answer this question.

Bill Zhu (Financial Director of Restaurant Business)

Okay. From this year, I think the adjustment of our restaurant strategy change is almost done. So maybe next year, we will trying to start to find a co-partner to open more restaurants for the dumpling restaurants and our restaurant business.

Alex Xu (Chairman and CEO)

Thanks, Bill. Thanks, Simon. This is a good question that the consumer trend has been rapidly, you know, improving, you know, changing. For instance, in the past, a substantial number of our Da Niang Dumplings restaurants are located in supermarket mall. The street shopping malls, you know, anchored by the supermarket. And we see the foot traffic to the supermarket mall have substantially reduced. I think this lead to the closure of most of the 64 restaurants. And we are actually finding the, you know, new consumer patterns of the consumption and finding the strategic located, for instance, the street-fronted stores, and they're trying to reorganize our team, especially the developers, and that, because the trend has been shifting, and then with that new format, and then we are able to open more, develop more restaurants in this new format. Thanks, Simon.

Simon Cheung (Managing Director)

Can I quickly follow up just on the two respective, sorry, on the two respective segment, hotel and restaurant? Do you have a sense or can you give us a target of, you know, the addition of the stores, you know, for example, for the full year, what, how many hotel you are expecting to add? Equally for the restaurants, I saw obviously it has dropped a lot. Do you have indications maybe in medium term, what sort of store count are you expecting?

Alex Xu (Chairman and CEO)

For the hotel side, we have actually moved to more focusing on those high quality hotels, and that we think that will build a better foundation for future. This year, I think the signing of the new contracts is gonna be more than 600. Because the openings take more time and that we calculated it in the pipelines, the number of new stores, new hotels can be around 420 for the year of 2023. For the new restaurants.

Bill Zhu (Financial Director of Restaurant Business)

For the new restaurants, we have targets like 20-30 restaurants for this year.

Simon Cheung (Managing Director)

Thank you.

Alex Xu (Chairman and CEO)

For the restaurant side, it's easy to add more. I think that we're focusing on more high-quality growth and making sure it doesn't burn a lot of cash, and to make sure that we can catch the consumer trend and the insights of today, growing the number of locations. So, that's our strategy for the remainder of next year, Simon.

Simon Cheung (Managing Director)

Thanks a lot, Alex. Thanks.

Operator (participant)

Once again, if you have a question, please press star, then one. We will now pause momentarily to allow questioners to enter the queue. Once again, if you have a question, please press star, then one. Your next question comes from [Adam Xu] with China Cinda Securities. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Hello, management, can you hear me?

Alex Xu (Chairman and CEO)

Yes, very clearly, Adam.

Speaker 8

Okay. Okay, okay. Well, sorry for the delay. My first question is: How do you like the competition and the, the market structure of the lower tier city, market? For the first, first reason is that I actually, actually received that the recovery of the lower tier city market is not that good as, as Tier 1 city this year. And some second reason, this year, I saw so many players coming into this, lower tier city market. How do you like the competition, in this, in this market? For second reason, and, and for my sec, second question, is that, what, what, what is the attitude from our franchisee partners, over the past, over the past seven or eight months? Is there any changes from their attitude?

That's all. Thank you.

Alex Xu (Chairman and CEO)

Okay. Thanks, Adam. The competition in the lower tier cities has, you know, grown, has been growing stronger in the past few years. We do not see it become, you know, stronger this year. I think that some players went to the third tier, fourth tier cities. I think the performance, you know, due to the challenge of managing them closely and effectively, we see some changes of the brand, a change of the, you know, closure. We see more closures and change of the brand in the Tier 3, Tier 4 cities. I think our strength has always been managing, you know, remotely. We're managing third, fourth tier cities very effectively.

So our hotels has been performing really well, and during the COVID and after the COVID, and they've been very stable and generating substantial cash flows to our franchisees. We think that our strength has been there are leading players in those diversified, booming, lower, you know, Tier 3 and lower-tier cities. In terms of attitude, our franchisees, the, it takes a little bit more time for our franchisees to adapt to the new environment, because the first few months, they have many, many, you know, issues we have to solve that accumulated during the, you know, during the pandemic era. Secondly, that we also have experienced substantial boom in the number of travelers, especially in the first- and second-tier cities.

We've been busy in terms of our franchisees being busy in terms of for getting everything, you know, getting our people along with GreenTree hired, retrained to meet the new demand. So this, the first few months has been very busy. But I think that I will use the word it takes a little bit more time for our franchisee's attitude towards the expansion and growth compared with the pre-pandemic levels. But we see the more and more confidence coming to the market, especially on the hotel side. I think the restaurant there will be because there is the trend has been shifting very quickly. You know, the traffic footprint, especially the foot traffic, has been changing.

So, we do see the franchisee a little bit more, you know, reserved, conservative in the restaurant segment. But in the long run, and we have a, we have been pretty confident that our franchisees, we already see some of our existing franchisees and started reaching out, either to, you know, researching additional properties and working with us. So we have more, a lot more product in the pipeline and especially high quality ones. And that, on the competition of the property side, that is a little bit less so, which is good for our franchisees because the rent, the rent pressure is somewhat reduced compared with the 2019 levels. So, Adam, those are the sentiments that we have experienced.

Operator (participant)

Once again, if you have a question, please press star, then one. We will now pause momentarily to allow questioners to enter the queue. Once again, if you have a question, please press star, then one. There are no further questions at this time. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ms. Selina Yang for any closing remarks.

Selina Yang (CFO)

Thank you. In closing, on behalf of the entire GreenTree management team, we thank you for your interest in GreenTree and your participation in today's call. If you require any further information or have chance to reach us, please feel free to contact us. Thank you all. Thank you, operator.

Alex Xu (Chairman and CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.