Huazhu Group Limited (NASDAQ: HTHT) (“Huazhu”, the “Company” or
“our”), a leading and fast-growing hotel group, today announced its
accelerated growth goal.
Ji Qi, founder and Executive Chairman of Huazhu,
commented, “Through our diligent and dedicated team under Jenny
Zhang’s leadership as Huazhu CEO for the last five years, Huazhu’s
hotel network has reached its first 5,000 hotels, with 18 brands
across more than 400 cities in China. As of September 30, 2019,
Huazhu had a total of 5,151 hotels in operation, plus another 1,736
hotels in the pipeline. Huazhu has also embarked on its
international expansion plan through the opening of the first Ji
Hotel in Singapore, and also recently announced the acquisition of
Deutsche Hospitality headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, with 118
mid-to-upscale-brand hotels in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
By leveraging our brand strength and operational excellence, we
aspire to accelerate our growth goal, and establish a global hotel
network during the next five years.”
In order to accomplish those aspirations, we
need to achieve the following:
- We will continue to enhance our product qualities, and deliver
attractive, good-quality and innovative customer experiences across
thousands of hotels throughout our hotel network.
- We will continue rapid expansion of our network covering the
entire spectrum from economy to upscale and luxury hotels. In
addition to our leadership in economy and mid-scale segments, we
need to establish ourselves in new segments such as upscale, luxury
and resort hotels.
- We will continue to invest in our people and our organizational
capabilities. We will build a productive, highly-motivated and
highly-empowered organization with one consistent company culture
to support this growth. Our devoted and professional associates are
the core of our business success. We will further improve our
training, coaching and career development, thus realizing the full
potential of every dedicated employee.
- We will continue our international expansion plan, building on
the recent acquisition of Deutsche Hospitality as well as new
hotels opened and under development in Singapore and Japan.
The success of the above actions will require
expanded capacity from Huazhu’s senior leadership. In response to
such needs, Ji Qi, our Founder and Executive Chairman, committed to
devote his full time to lead Huazhu forward. The Company today
announced the reappointment of Ji Qi, our Founder and Executive
Chairman, to take on the additional role of Chief Executive
Officer, and the appointment of Jenny Zhang as Huazhu’s Executive
Vice-Chairlady, effective November 8, 2019. This change will allow
Jenny to have more time to drive our international expansion, while
assisting Ji Qi in critical strategic and operational decisions for
Huazhu Group. This change will also allow Jenny to spend more time
coaching our Huazhu executives and our promising young talents to
facilitate their growth for future Huazhu leadership roles.
Ji Qi is one of the most experienced and
successful leaders in China’s travel and lodging sector. He founded
Huazhu in 2005 at the age of 39 and was the architect of Huazhu’s
multip-brand strategy. With the vision to build a world-class
enterprise, Huazhu has become one of the fastest growing hotel
groups in China and ranked 9th among the world’s largest hotel
groups, under the leadership of Ji Qi. H Rewards, as an upgraded
loyalty program and an efficient, warm, user-friendly hotel booking
platform as well, provides accommodation, transportation, shopping
and other preferred services for 139 million members. He served as
our CEO until August 2009 and resumed his CEO role from January
2012 to May 2015. Before founding Huazhu, Ji was a co-founder
of Ctrip.com and Home Inns. Mr. Ji received both his Master's and
Bachelor's degrees from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and EMBA
from Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.
Since May 2015, Ms. Jenny Zhang has served as
CEO of Huazhu. She has joined Huazhu as Chief Financial Officer
since March 2008. With the perspective on globalization, she leads
Huazhu’s rapid development and implementation of multi-brand
strategy to maintain in leading position of the hotel industry.
Jenny received her master degree of Business and Administration
from Harvard Business School. She has more than 20 years of working
experiences of financial and operational management in
multinational enterprises.
Ji Qi remarked: “Jenny and I have had the
privilege and joy of working together in different capacities over
the last 12 years, with Jenny as our CFO when I was the CEO, and
more recently with Jenny as our CEO with me as the Executive
Chairman. Jenny has been an excellent and inspiring leader for
Huazhu, and a trusted business partner to me. Under Jenny’s
leadership during the last five years, Huazhu’s growth and
performance has been remarkable. Jenny and I have jointly decided
to work together under this new arrangement so we can
simultaneously grow Huazhu’s domestic and international
businesses.”
Jenny Zhang added: “Ji Qi and I have built a
solid and trusting working relationship during these last 12 years.
This new working arrangement will allow me to now spend more
time and energy on our important expansion outside China while Ji
Qi serves as Huazhu CEO with more daily involvement in our
operations throughout China. In this way, Huazhu can benefit from
the strengths of both of us. I look forward to an exciting next
five years of growth and profitability for Huazhu.”
About Huazhu Group
LimitedHuazhu Group Limited is a leading hotel operator
and franchisor. As of September 30, 2019, Huazhu operated 5,151
hotels with 504,414 rooms in operation. Huazhu’s brands include Hi
Inn, Elan Hotel, HanTing Hotel, HanTing Premium Hotel, JI Hotel,
Starway Hotel, Orange Hotel Select, Crystal Orange Hotel, Manxin
Hotels & Resorts, Joya Hotel, Blossom Hill Hotels &
Resorts, Madison and Grand Madison. Huazhu also has the rights as
master franchisee for Mercure, Ibis and Ibis Styles, and
co-development rights for Grand Mercure and Novotel, in the
pan-China region.
Huazhu’s business mainly includes leased,
manachised and franchised models. Under the lease model, Huazhu
directly operates hotels typically located on leased properties.
Under the manachise model, Huazhu manages manachised hotels through
the on-site hotel managers Huazhu appoints and collects fees from
franchisees. Under the franchise model, Huazhu provides training,
reservations and support services to the franchised hotels, and
collects fees from franchisees but does not appoint on-site hotel
managers. In addition, Huazhu has a limited number of hotels in
owned or partially owned properties. Huazhu applies a consistent
standard and platform across all of its hotels. As of September 30,
2019, Huazhu operates 83 percent of its hotel rooms under manachise
and franchise models.
For more information, please visit Huazhu’s
website: http://ir.huazhu.com.
Safe Harbor Statement Under the U.S. Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The information in this
release contains forward-looking statements which involve risks and
uncertainties. Such factors and risks include our anticipated
growth strategies; our future results of operations and financial
condition; the economic conditions of China; the regulatory
environment in China; our ability to attract and retain customers
and leverage our brands; trends and competition in the lodging
industry; the expected growth of demand for lodging in China; and
other factors and risks detailed in our filings with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission. Any statements contained herein
that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be
forward-looking statements, which may be identified by terminology
such as “may,” “should,” “will,” “expect,” “plan,” “intend,”
“anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,”
“forecast,” “project” or “continue,” the negative of such terms or
other comparable terminology. Readers should not rely on
forward-looking statements as predictions of future events or
results.
Huazhu undertakes no obligation to update or
revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise, unless required by
applicable law.
Contact InformationHuazhu Investor RelationsTel:
+86 (21) 6195 9561Email: ir@huazhu.comhttp://ir.huazhu.com
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