On July 19, the historic drama of Sunac's acquisition of Wanda Assets came to an end. In the end, Sunac took away 13 cultural tourism project for 43.844 billion yuan, and R&F took over 77 hotel assets for nearly 20 billion yuan, which was cheaper than Sunac's previous acquisition price 10 billion yuan.
Through this acquisition, the hotel scale of R&F will exceed 65,438+000, becoming one of the largest hotel operators in the world, and this distinctive label is also the way for R&F to break through in the real estate transition period.
On July 20th, Hu Jie, the director of R&F, revealed in the conference call of China Merchants Securities that R&F achieved revenue of 40 billion yuan in the first half of the year, and the company will pay all of it with its own funds.
However, holding heavy hotel assets is a few choices for real estate developers at present, especially when the hotel industry is facing difficulties since 20 14. If R&F wants to achieve hotel profitability and stable cash flow in the future, capitalization and spin-off are the only way.
New label of R&F
On July 19, a dramatic scene was staged at the signing ceremony of Wanda Rongchuang Fuli. The words "R&F Real Estate" on the activity background board were deleted, and the meeting was extended by one hour. Now it seems that Zhang Li and Li Silian, two directors of R&F, may have succeeded in "bargaining" on the spot.
The final acquisition plan is a hotel project with an original price of 33.595 billion yuan, which was taken over by Sunac. It was acquired by R&F Real Estate for 654.38+09.906 billion yuan, and the number of hotels increased from 76 to 77.
Hu Jie, director-general of R&F Real Estate, revealed the negotiation process of the transaction, saying that it took only three or four days for R&F to get the news and sign the final decision, stressing that "it only accepted the price of 60% off" and "it was not decided until the last minute before signing the contract".
In R&F's view, this is undoubtedly a particularly cost-effective transaction. The purchase price is only 60% off the net book value of the hotel, which is lower than the hotel cost.
According to the announcement of R&F, 77 city hotels are located in the core area of the city, with an area of about 3.286 million square meters and 23,202 guest rooms, including four high-end Dalian Wanda self-operated hotel brands and several internationally renowned luxury hotel management brands (Westin, Hilton, etc. ). The net asset value of 77 hotels is expected to be no less than 3,365,438+76 million yuan.
Hu Jie said that in addition to the low price, reducing the hotel's cost and direct operating income are also important factors for R&F in this acquisition. According to R&F's calculation, the development of 77 hotels will take 15-20 years, so this transaction will save several billion yuan each year, and the pre-promotion cost of hotels will also be saved.
On the other hand, the acquisition of hotels also contributes to the expansion of Fuli's own business map. The existence of Li Silian, one of the co-founders and chairman of R&F, makes R&F always bear the genes of Hong Kong-funded real estate developers and pay more attention to holding properties and operating cash flow.
In R&F's real estate holding business, shopping centers and office buildings are not strong points. Relatively speaking, the company has more experience in high-end hotel management. Since 2004, R&F has invested in the construction of high-end hotels, all of which are operated by internationally renowned hotel management companies such as Hyatt Group, Intercontinental Group, Hilton Group and Accor Hotel Group, which have strong competitiveness.
According to the data, R&F Real Estate has newly built 24 luxury hotels, mainly distributed in Guangzhou, Huizhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Beijing and Hainan, all of which are 4-5 star luxury hotels. In 20 16 years, the hotel business of the company achieved steady growth, and its operating income increased by 15.33% year-on-year to136,200 yuan.
R&F Real Estate stated in its 20 16 annual report that it hopes to expand its high-end, high-capital investment portfolio including hotels at an appropriate pace. R&F believes that holding an investment real estate portfolio and providing reliable cash flow can resist the ups and downs of the economic cycle.
Therefore, it is timely for R&F Real Estate to include 77 hotels in Wanda at a lower price. Yan Yuejin, director of the think tank center of Shanghai Yiju Research Institute, said that in recent years, R&F has continuously expanded its scale and acquired hotel projects, which can expand its asset management scale and contribute to the improvement of subsequent business performance.
After taking over 77 Wanda hotels, R&F will hold more than 100 hotels and become one of the largest five-star hotel owners in the world, which can compete with Hilton, Marriott and other hotel groups in the future. This is also the self-breakthrough of this veteran real estate developer in the case of stagnant scale and ineffective diversified transformation: to become a professional hotel operator through acquisition.
The road to capitalization
R&F, which has always been low-key and calm, shot 20 billion yuan, which also made the outside world question the source of R&F's funds.
Before the acquisition, R&F's own debt ratio exceeded the industry average. The data shows that by the end of March 2007, the consolidated assets of R&F Group were 232.504 billion yuan, the liabilities were 185368 billion yuan, and the asset-liability ratio was 79.32%. The ending balance of cash and cash equivalents was 24.522 billion yuan.
Hu Jie said that unlike Sunac's previous "debt acquisition", R&F only acquired assets from Wanda Hotel, and Wanda would divest its liabilities. "In the first half of the year, R&F achieved a revenue of 40 billion yuan, and its own funds were sufficient. Payment within two years has also reduced the financial pressure. "
After the acquisition is completed, the net assets of R&F will increase by more than 654.38+0 billion yuan, and the debt ratio will drop from more than 79% in 2065.438+06 to 74.9%-75%, thus improving the balance sheet.
Hu Jie also said that the total acquisition price was less than 20 billion yuan, and the total revenue of 77 hotels in 20 16 was 5.3 billion yuan. The four-year operating amount can cover the purchase consideration and increase the cash flow. If the hotel is fully used for financing, it can already recover the part that exceeds the purchase price.
It is worth noting that hotels, as heavy assets with poor liquidity, rank lower in the profit index of China real estate industry. Although the hotel business of R&F Real Estate is growing steadily, the overall profit level is not optimistic.
According to the financial report of R&F Real Estate, the operating loss of the hotel in 20 16 was1830,000 yuan, while in 20 15 it was1670,000 yuan. The 76 hotels (excluding the newly added one) acquired Wanda this time have operating profits of 550 million yuan and 870 million yuan in 20 15 and 20 16 respectively, and the return on net assets is less than 3%.
How to realize the long-term operation and profit of the hotel? Hu Jie said that after the acquisition, R&F plans to spin off the hotel in the future, which can solve the profitability problem faced by the hotel to some extent.
Yan Yuejin said that on the one hand, the reason why hotels are difficult to make profits lies in the increase of various competitive products, and the supply exceeds demand; On the other hand, the hotel's own property decoration and outsourcing management will occupy a lot of resources and funds, thus compressing the hotel's profit space. In order to break through this situation, we should make efforts from two aspects: hotel operation and capitalization operation.
For R&F, it is necessary to improve the competitiveness of the hotel industry through capitalization. Specifically, R&F can be capitalized in three ways.
The first is to return to A shares; Second, continue to refinance, especially after the acquisition of hotels, brand unified management needs all kinds of financial support; The third is asset securitization, which packages hotels and splits them into shares. On the basis of securitization, we can also make a light asset model.
Earlier, the management of R&F Real Estate revealed the plan to return to A shares in the third quarter of 20 17. In this regard, BOC International believes that the financing channels of real estate companies are limited by the government's austerity policy, and it is expected that the listing plan of R&F is still uncertain.