Home Inns & Hotels Management Inc. (HMIN), China’s second-biggest budget hotel operator, is close to an agreement to buy Morgan Stanley’s 59 percent stake in Shanghai Motel Management Ltd, two people familiar with the matter said.
Nasdaq-traded Home Inns is in advanced talks with Morgan Stanley and other shareholders and may sign an agreement as early as next week, the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private. The deal may value Shanghai Motel Management at as much as $500 million, they said.
Morgan Stanley is selling control of the budget hotel chain five years after its real estate fund first invested in the company. Non-star, non-rated hotels accounted for 95% of China’s lodging industry at the end of 2008, making the business ripe for consolidation, Credit Suisse Group AG said in January.
Home Inns reported its net income fell 30% to 32.5 million yuan (USD5 million) for the first quarter this year. 7 Days Group Holdings Ltd., China’s second-biggest branded budget hotel, reported on May 12 its net income for the first quarter fell 25% to 4.3 million yuan from the same period last year.
Budget Hotels
Shanghai Motel Management operates Motel 168, China’s fourth-biggest branded budget hotel chain in terms of number of rooms with a 7.3 percent market share, according to Credit Suisse. The company also runs the Motel 268 premium brand.
The number of branded budget hotels in China jumped by an average 82% a year from 2000 through 2008, and their overall market share may rise from 0.9% at the end of that period to 5.5% in 2015, Credit Suisse said.
Noel Cheung, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman at Morgan Stanley (MS), declined to comment. Home Inns Chief Financial Officer Yan Huiping didn’t respond to three calls to her office.
Morgan Stanley early last year planned to sell its stake through a public offering and decided to find a strategic buyer instead around fall due to market volatility, one of the people said. Selling shares to the public may have also limited the amount it could offload, the person added.
New York-based Morgan Stanley received up to a USD1 billion non-binding bid when it first started the sale process late last year, the person said.
The offers in the March bidding round came lower as share prices of Nasdaq-listed Chinese hotels fell, two people with knowledge of the matter said in April. China Lodging Group Ltd. (HTHT), which operates the Hanting Inns & Hotels chain, also submitted a bid at the time, the people reported.
