This article only represents the author's own views.
The latest quarterly report from leading Chinese hotel operator H World Group Ltd. (HTHT.US; 1197.HK) contains a few noteworthy elements, many related to China’s post-Covid travel rebound. The operator of the Hanting budget chain and more upscale Ji brand of hotels in China reported its first profit in nearly two years, as Chinese took to the road in a post-Covid wave of “revenge travel.”
But one of the most noteworthy elements, in our view, is the continued underperformance of the company’s European operation, which it acquired in 2019 when it purchased Germany’s Deutsche Hospitality for 720 million euros ($771 million). That deal was part of a broader trend for globally minded Chinese companies to make overseas acquisitions in a bid to extend their success at home.