I mean the stock for the short term, not the hotel. They reported the Q4 2006 and full year results today. Here is the result. It’s good number, but again the current stock price is way ahead of curve. Going forward they are “going to beep up franchise hotels in Beijing and China”, translated in plain English: franchise hotel does not generate much revenue, the profit margin may not be as good as leased/operated hotel too. They expect a 60% to 70% top line growth for 2007, which is reasonable. But that may not satisfy the lofty expectation from the Street.
Don’t get me wrong, I still like the company, the management and the stock. There was a small incident in the conference call, the operator was going to shut off because he did not see question in queue, CFO May Wu asked him to wait for a few minutes. Sometimes people need a little time to think before asking questions…I think May Wu is smart (she is from Fudan, by the way).
The picture was taken at Jinjiang Chef (restaurant at Jinjiang Inn, Home Inns’ competitor)