China Lodging Group Q3 Profit Rises - Update

(RTTNews) - Hotel chain China Lodging Group Ltd. (HTHT), Wednesday reported an increase in profit for the third quarter, as revenues jumped 21 percent on higher rates and increase in number of rooms.

Shanghai-based China Lodging's third-quarter profit improved to 149.6 million yuan or 2.36 yuan per ADS from 124.9 million yuan or 2.00 yuan per ADS last year. On a US dollar basis, profit for the quarter was $24.4 million or $0.38 per ADS.

For the third quarter, adjusted earnings per ADS were 2.61 yuan or $0.43.

China Lodging's net revenues for the quarter grew 21 percent to 1.39 billion yuan from 1.15 billion yuan last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected revenues of 1.39 billion yuan for the quarter.

Revenue per available room, an important industry metric of occupancies and rates, dropped to 173 yuan from 175 yuan a year ago, as occupancy rate dropped.

ADR, the average daily rate for all hotels in operation, rose 1 percent to 187 yuan from 186 yuan last year. Occupancy rate declined to 92.5 percent in the quarter from 94.1 percent last year. The company operated a total of 1,849 hotels or 197,674 hotel rooms as of September 30, 2014.

Moving ahead to the fourth quarter, the company expects revenue growth of 15.5 to 17.5 percent year-over-year. For the full year, the company expects revenue growth of 19 to 19.6 percent, slightly lower than the initial full year expectations provided at the beginning of the year.

China Lodging Group operates a chain of limited-service hotels in China under JI Hotel, Starway Hotel, HanTing Hotel, and Hi Inn chain.

HTHT closed Wednesday's trading at $27.58, up $0.53 or 1.96%, on the Nasdaq.