Yu Liang: How to win investment opportunities in 2024 with asset management thinking?

Mondo Finance Updated on 2024-01-31

In 2023, the hotel industry will usher in a recovery and recovery, but at the same time, the hotel industry is facing greater challenges. This challenge stems from the health of the current market and how to reap the dividends of the market in the current market environment.

This year, we have experienced a boom in hotel demand, but also experienced a downgrade in consumption, under the pain of alternating between the old and new cycles, in the face of new changes and new patterns, no matter which side of the upstream and downstream of the hotel is, they are standing in a higher perspective, a more complete dimension, a deep understanding of their own value, and the role of the field.

Whether it is a new investor or an old investor, it is necessary to clearly understand that the future market is a professional market, and it is necessary to have the power of still water to go through the good night and find new opportunities.

Although from 2023, the domestic situation has become clearer, and everyone's travel pace is no longer "confined". But for hotel investors, I think there is still a need to be cautious. After all, hotel investment is about making money, not feelings. Investors should have their own forward-looking, positioning and goals, and consider the return on investment from a rational perspective.

Taking the cooperation with state-owned assets advocated by many investors as an example, there are also certain risks behind what seems to be the best window period for cooperation with state-owned assets.

In different periods of cooperation, investors and SOEs will encounter a variety of problems, including but not limited to management differences, unclear regulations, and the attribution of responsibility. Therefore, it is inevitable that there will be a cooperation that always starts well, but the result is not necessarily satisfactory. Therefore, in the current cooperation with state-owned projects, many senior investors will be more cautious and will not act lightly.

In addition to prudence, the hotel investment industry has higher requirements for the professional ability of investors. In fact, at the beginning of this year, when reviewing the hotel investment industry in the past three years, I put forward this view. Over the course of a year, the performance of the market has confirmed this view. Nowadays, investing in hotels has higher requirements for investors' management ability and investment judgment ability.

Looking back on 2023, I would like to share two investment highlights:

1. Cooperate with professional forces

This force includes not only partners, but also hotel brands, as well as professional hotel investment institutions. As I said earlier, today's hotel investment requires more and more specialization, and the combination of strong and strong can produce a better return on investment. Taking brands as an example, on the whole, brands that can provide more accurate, professional and customized system support according to the needs of investors can work with investors to achieve benchmark stores, and link more high-quality projects to provide classic samples in the later stage.

2. Clarify investment ideas and logic

Even though the general environment is gradually warming, the big economy will not recover so quickly, so you should not be too optimistic about investing in hotels and give up the idea of making quick money. In addition, there are not only physical parts in hotel products, but also parts that can only be felt, such as services and experiences. Therefore, before investing in hotels, it is necessary to analyze the hotel investment logic clearly, have an in-depth understanding of the specific matters of hotel investment, and determine the investment direction in advance before getting involved in the hotel investment industry.

In 2023, I will add a new identity - Chairman of Shanghai Punctuation Peak Business Management. Punctuation Peak Commercial Asset Investment Management Agency (hereinafter referred to as "Punctuation Peak") is currently the first and most professional asset investment and management institution in China, uniting institutional investors across the country to carry out the investment and management of the whole life cycle of new and renovated assets.

Punctuation Peak uses its own big data system, through the China Hotel Investment Index - AC Index (matching the best brand management company), China Hotel Industry ** Chain Index - CHPI Index (the lowest cost, the highest quality) to reduce the risk and improve the return of asset management with the most professional data system.

In 2023, Punctuation Peak Investment will jointly build 3 hotel projects with InterContinental Hotels Group, 2 international high-end hotels and 1 international mid-to-high-end hotel, namely Holiday Inn Liuyang Huijin Center CFC, Holiday Inn Express Nanjing Port Building and Hualuxe Hotel Ganzhou (name to be determined).

Among them, Holiday Inn Liuyang Huijin Center CFC is located in the core area of "one river and two banks" in Liuyang City, the Shuijia section of Guankou Street, Liuyang City. With a height of 198 meters, Liuyang Huijin Center CFC will become the new cover of Liuyang City after its full completion, refreshing the city skyline.

On the one hand, the entry of Holiday Inn, an international high-end hotel brand under InterContinental Hotels Group, is an affirmation of the superior location of Liuyang Huijin Center CFC and the future development prospects of the core area of "one river and two banks" in Liuyang City. On the other hand, it also strengthens the high-quality advantages of Liuyang Huijin Center CFC.

In addition, Holiday Inn Express Nanjing Port Building, located in Xiaguan Binjiang Business District, Gulou District, Nanjing, is one of the two cores of the overall layout of "one belt, two cores and three districts" in the construction of Nanjing Harbor Hub Economic Zone. The property where the hotel is located is Nanjing Port Building, which is the second phase of Nanjing Yangtze River International Shipping and Logistics Service Center, and is a shipping industry project officially licensed by the Ministry of Communications of the province and city.

The combination model of international high-star hotels + Grade A office buildings such as Nanjing Port Building not only enhances the overall image of the property where the hotel is located, but also optimizes the supporting facilities and services of the property, such as high-end star conference rooms and executive lounges. At the same time, these hotels have also become an important window to show the outside world the new spirit of business and cultural tourism in the region.

In fact, "investment, financing, construction, management, and withdrawal" is the whole life cycle of hotel asset management, and there are very few that can really do these things well, especially those that can do a good job of "withdrawal". However, although there is no mature exit mechanism for hotel assets in China, if your property conditions are very good, and you are willing to share and achieve cooperation and support between formats, the results of future exit will probably be very good.

So how should investors get through the whole life cycle of hotel asset management of "investment, financing, construction, management and withdrawal"?

The first point is to clarify the concept of "asset management".

Taking mid-to-high-end hotels as an example, investors need to first clarify which equipment and investments are assets. As far as I know, from the generation of the lease to the end of the lease, what can bring investors a discount is the real asset, that is, the value of the asset is considered from the perspective of discounted cash flow.

The second point is to prepend "exit".

I think that for investors, in fact, in the early stage of decision-making, they should think about issues such as equity structure and business distribution. In other words, when "investing", we must think of "retreat". Similarly, taking mid-to-high-end hotels as an example, you can try to diversify your business formats. In this process, it is necessary to pay attention to the sharing of vertical transportation.

Third, choose carefully.

Taking hotel brand selection as an example, I think this is an account that needs to be calculated at the "investment" stage. If it is a relatively short lease period (5-6 years), for the sake of capital liquidity, it is mainly an economical brand with low investment and fast return on investment. However, if it is a medium- to long-term investment of 15-20 years, I still prefer to work with mid-to-high-end brands of international hotel groups.

Of course, investors can also choose to be responsible for professional institutions. We punctuate the peak value for comprehensive assets such as hotels, apartments and cultural tourism lodging collections, providing services including research and survey, investment, asset management and other services, opening up the whole life cycle of assets of "investment, financing, construction, management and withdrawal".

About the future

As China's hotel market enters the era of asset stock, "investment, financing, construction, management and withdrawal" has become a key issue that every hotel investor, owner and operation manager needs to face. At the same time, the improvement of the value of hotel assets has naturally become the most important focus for the future development of the hotel investment industry.

In the face of new asset management challenges, investors must "arm" themselves with new asset management logic.

On the one hand, investors can clarify the current stage of the development of the hotel industry and better grasp the market opportunities. In my opinion, the development of China's hotel industry has entered the fourth stage, under the influence of multiple factors, many small and medium-sized independent hotels have been cleared, many stock property opportunities have been released, and the Matthew effect of the leading hotel groups has intensified. Therefore, in the stage of "investment", priority can be given to the strength brand of the head group.

On the other hand, investors need to foresee the future development direction of the hotel industry and seize investment opportunities in advance. In my opinion, it takes a certain amount of time for the hotel to be capitalized, but the first to realize the hotel assetization must be these state-owned asset projects.

I believe that the state-owned assets of every province and city will eventually come to this point, and the high-quality part will be integrated and listed, and if the volume is not enough, more high-quality hotel assets will be acquired and listed at a valuation. I think this is a big move and direction that will appear in the hotel market in the next 10 years. At present, I am already planning and laying out this area.

A new era of hotel investment has begun, and the trend of hotel investment in 2024 is openFrom January 16th to January 17th, the annual event [Answer and Direction: 2023-2024 China Hotel and Housing Rental Industry Investment Annual Classroom & Closing Ceremony] co-sponsored by Cifang Dianping, Sumitomo Consulting and Punctuation Peak will be officially opened at Holiday Inn Pudong Pudong

Investor introduction

Mr. Yu Liang.

Chairman of Punctuation Peak.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hotel Management (Shanghai).

Introduction: Mr. Yu Liang is a senior hotel investor in East China. He is also a strategic partner of IHG. Mr. Yu Liang has been in the industry for 30 years, with an investment age of 20 years, 9 self-invested hotels, nearly 50 projects, and a total personal investment of more than 200 million. The investment in hotel grades covers mid-to-high-end, mid-range, boutique and economical, and the brands invested include Holiday Express, Jinjiang Metropolo, and its own brands.

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