H World's 2024 Profit Hit By International Business

The hotel operator's overseas revenue grew last year, but its widening losses sharply dragged down the company's overall profit

Key Takeaways:

H World reported its profit dropped nearly 27% in 2024, including a 93% plunge in the fourth-quarter

The hotel company's overseas business recorded an operating loss of more than 400 million yuan last year

After 20 years of labor and tirelessly rolling out the welcome mat, H World Group Ltd. (1179.HK; HTHT.US) founder Ji Qi finally realized his long-held ambition of operating "10,000 hotels in 1,000 cities" last year. By the end of 2024, his company presided over a portfolio of 11,147 hotels, with just over 1 million rooms.

"In 2024, H World achieved the 10,000-hotel milestone and continued our fast network expansion in China," said CEO Jin Hui. "By 2024, Legacy-H World has opened over 2,400 new hotels, far exceeding our initial target of 1,800 hotels," he added, referring to the company's original China business, which includes the budget HanTing hotel brand.

Climbing revenue, plunging profits

Despite hitting those milestones, H World's bottom line didn't fare quite so well last year. Its top line revenue posted a respectable 9.2% rise to 23.9 billion yuan ($3.28 billion) for the year, but its profit went the other way, falling 26.8% to 3 billion yuan from 4.1 billion yuan in 2023. The fourth-quarter was particularly weak, with revenue up by a slower 7.8% year-on-year to 6 billion yuan. And its profit nearly evaporated to just 49 million yuan, plunging 93.4% from 743 million yuan in the year-ago ...

https://www.benzinga.com/markets/asia/25/04/44587519/h-worlds-2024-profit-hit-by-international-business