SPANISH chain NH Hotel Group is planning to open eight properties in China this year in a joint venture with Hainan-based HNA travel group.
The group also said it expects to return to profits in 2015 – a year after HNA took over as its biggest stakeholder – for the first time since 2007.
The initial plan for its expansion in China, announced to Spanish stock market authorities in September 2014, was for the two groups to form a joint management company to run six hotels with a total of some 1,300 rooms.
That number has now been increased to eight properties with more than 2,030 rooms, in cities such as Beijing, Haikou on Hainan island, Tianjin and Dongguan in Guangdong.
A spokesperson declined to give further details at this stage when interviewed by TTG Asia e-Daily.
After being hit hard by the European economic crisis, which particularly affected the group’s predominantly business customer base, NH president Rodrigo Echenique declared at the company’s annual shareholder meeting this week that “the worst is now past”.
“The improvement in all the economic indicators in all business units, and growth in income above our competitors’ (levels) in many of the destinations where the group operates, confirm that the company as a whole is making the necessary steps to return to growth,” added CEO Federico González Tejera.
