Hotel Consolidation Moves Ahead With 7 Days Deal 七天连锁酒店收购表明酒店业整合继续

By newsdoug on July 4, 2011

China’s vibrant budget hotel sector, still suffering a bit from Expo hangover (previous post), has taken its latest move to ease the pain with the acquisition of a mid-sized player by 7 Days (NYSE: SVN), one of the industry’s leaders. (company announcement) In this case, 7 Days is buying Huatian Hotel Group (Shenzhen: 000428), a decidedly mid-tier player with 21 hotels in 12 mostly mid-sized cities, for $21 million. This deal looks like a perfect fit for a major player like 7 Days, complementing its own much larger stable of hotels more concentrated in major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and its home base 7 Days in budget hotel sector's latest consolidation of Guangzhou. Indeed, it was the big-city concentration that led 7 Days and fellow operators like Home Inns (Nasdaq: HMIN) to suffer a case of “Expo hangover”, as their business flattened after a huge bump during Shanghai’s World Expo last year. 7 Days’ deal comes just a month after a much bigger deal that saw Home Inns acquire the Motel 168 in a transaction that valued that company at about $500 million. (previous post) It also comes amid another consolidation-type play by travel Website Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP), which is linking up independent hotel operators into a national alliance under the Starway brand. (previous post) All this activity looks very healthy for a relatively fragmented industry with huge growth potential as millions of Chinese look for affordable vacations to take advantage of their rising wealth. As industry leaders Home Inns, 7 Days and China Lodging Group (Nasdaq: HTHT) drive this growing consolidation, I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of the big global hotel brands like Marriott (NYSE: MAR) or Accor (Paris: AC) step in and either try to buy up one of these firms or form some other kind of tie-up.

Bottom line: 7 Days’ purchase of a regional hotel operator marks the latest consolidation in a vibrant Chinese budget hotel sector still recovering from Expo hangover.

在中国经济型酒店依然承受着上海世博会结束带来的余痛之际，7天连锁酒店<SVN.N>以2,100万美元收购了一家中等规模的同业者——湖南华天之星酒店管理有限公司，给整个行业带来了好消息。对於7天连锁酒店这样的大型业者来说，此举堪称完美搭配，因为7天连锁酒店主要集中於北京、上海、广州等大城市，而其所收购的公司主打二、三线城市市场。正是那种“大城市策略”，让7天连锁酒店和如家<HMIN.O>等在上海世博会期间迎来业务高峰的酒店企业，经历了世博会之後的下滑阵痛。一个月前，如家以5亿美元收购了莫泰168酒店59%的股权。与此同时，旅游网站携程<CTRP.O>还在“星程”品牌下整合了全国各地一些独立运作的酒店。所有这一切，对於一个散兵游勇众多但增长潜力巨大的行业来说，确实是个好现象。在如家、7天和汉庭<HTHT.O>引领此次行业整合风潮之际，我觉得万豪国际<MAR.N>、雅高<ACCP.PA>等国际大型酒店集团可能也会有所行动——要麽收购其中一家企业，要麽也组成类似的同盟。

一句话：依然经历着上海世博会结束余痛的中国经济型酒店行业已进入整合期，7天连锁酒店的收购举动便是最新明证。