Home Inns near to buying stake
Source: Bloomberg News |
May 27, 2011, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
HOME Inns & Hotels Management Inc, China's second-biggest budget hotel operator, is close to buying Morgan Stanley's 59 percent stake in Shanghai Motel Management Ltd, two people familiar with the matter said yesterday.
Nasdaq-traded Home Inns is in advanced talks with Morgan Stanley and other shareholders and may sign an agreement as early as next week, they said. The deal may value Shanghai Motel Management at as much as US$500 million, they said.
Morgan Stanley is selling control of the budget hotel chain five years after its real estate fund first invested in the company. Non-star, non-rated hotels accounted for 95 percent of China's lodging industry at the end of 2008, making the business ripe for consolidation, Credit Suisse Group AG said in January.
Home Inns reported its net income fell 30 percent to 32.5 million yuan (US$5 million) for the first quarter of this year. 7 Days Group Holdings Ltd, China's second-biggest branded budget hotel, reported on May 12 that its first-quarter net income fell 25 percent to 4.3 million yuan from the same period of last year.
Shanghai Motel Management operates Motel 168, China's fourth-biggest branded budget hotel chain in terms of number of rooms with a 7.3 percent market share, according to Credit Suisse. The company also runs the Motel 268 premium brand.
The number of branded budget hotels in China jumped by an average 82 percent a year from 2000 through 2008, and their overall market share may rise from 0.9 percent at the end of that period to 5.5 percent in 2015, Credit Suisse said.
Noel Cheung, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Morgan Stanley, declined to comment. Home Inns Chief Financial Officer Yan Huiping didn't respond to three calls to her office.
Morgan Stanley early last year planned to sell its stake through a public offering and decided to find a strategic buyer instead due to market volatility, one of the people said. Selling shares to the public may have also limited the amount it could offload, the person said.
Morgan Stanley received up to a US$1 billion non-binding bid when it first started the sale process late last year, the person said.
Nasdaq-traded Home Inns is in advanced talks with Morgan Stanley and other shareholders and may sign an agreement as early as next week, they said. The deal may value Shanghai Motel Management at as much as US$500 million, they said.
Morgan Stanley is selling control of the budget hotel chain five years after its real estate fund first invested in the company. Non-star, non-rated hotels accounted for 95 percent of China's lodging industry at the end of 2008, making the business ripe for consolidation, Credit Suisse Group AG said in January.
Home Inns reported its net income fell 30 percent to 32.5 million yuan (US$5 million) for the first quarter of this year. 7 Days Group Holdings Ltd, China's second-biggest branded budget hotel, reported on May 12 that its first-quarter net income fell 25 percent to 4.3 million yuan from the same period of last year.
Shanghai Motel Management operates Motel 168, China's fourth-biggest branded budget hotel chain in terms of number of rooms with a 7.3 percent market share, according to Credit Suisse. The company also runs the Motel 268 premium brand.
The number of branded budget hotels in China jumped by an average 82 percent a year from 2000 through 2008, and their overall market share may rise from 0.9 percent at the end of that period to 5.5 percent in 2015, Credit Suisse said.
Noel Cheung, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Morgan Stanley, declined to comment. Home Inns Chief Financial Officer Yan Huiping didn't respond to three calls to her office.
Morgan Stanley early last year planned to sell its stake through a public offering and decided to find a strategic buyer instead due to market volatility, one of the people said. Selling shares to the public may have also limited the amount it could offload, the person said.
Morgan Stanley received up to a US$1 billion non-binding bid when it first started the sale process late last year, the person said.
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