GreenTree Hospitality Group Ltd (GHG) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by for GreenTree's third quarter 2023 financial results release. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the meeting over to your host for today's call, Mr. Rene Vanguestaine of Christensen, GreenTree's Investor Relations firm. Please proceed, Rene.

Thank you, MJ. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us. GreenTree's earnings release was distributed earlier today and is available on our IR website at ir.998.com as well as on PR Newswire services. As a reminder, we also posted a PowerPoint presentation that accompanies our comments to the same IR website.

On the call from GreenTree are Mr. Alex Xu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Ms. Selina Yang, Chief Financial Officer; Ms. Megan Huang, Vice President of Sales and Marketing; and Ms. [Ellen Zhao], Financial Director stepping in from Mr. Bill Joe, who is not available today.

Mr. Xu will present the company's performance overview for the third quarter of 2023, followed by Ms. Huang and Ms. Zhao, who will discuss business operations. And then Ms. Yang and Ms. Zhao will discuss financials and guidance. They will be available to answer your questions during the Q&A session which follows.

Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that this conference call contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended and as defined in the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminologies such as may, will, expects, anticipates, aims, future, intends, plans, believes, estimates, continue, target, is or are likely to, going forward, confident outlook, and similar statements. Any statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the company and its industry, are forward-looking statements.

Such statements are based upon management's current expectation and current market and operating conditions and relate to events that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the company's control, which may cause the company's actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements.

You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in the company's filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided, including the forward-looking statements made during this conference call are current as of today's date. The company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required under applicable law.

It is now my pleasure to introduce our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Alex Xu. Mr. Xu, please go ahead.

Thanks, Rene, and hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We had a good third quarter with a strong recovery in our hotel business year-over-year as tourism and business travel continues to rebound. RevPAR increased 30.5% year-over-year, reaching as high as 110% of its third quarter of 2019 levels in July and August with a surge in the number of tourists during the summer vacation.

The pace of recovery of RevPAR slowed slightly in September but remained stable. We will continue to implement our long-term strategic development plan focused on helping franchisees to maintain high quality service and operations and expand our hotel network on the sales channel, provide stable operating profitability, and maintain long-term stable growth.

Please turn to slide 5. Compared with the third quarter of 2022, hotel RevPAR was RMB156, up 30.5%. And the restaurant ADS that is average daily sales per store was RMB6,548, up 7.4%. Total revenues were RMB460.9 million, up 15.3%. The increase was partially due to the recovery in RevPAR, The increase in the number of hotels, and the increase in the ADS offset by the closure of 85 restaurants over the past 12 months.

Income from operations increased to RMB137.8 million with a margin of 29.9% net income was RMB117.4 million with a margin of 25.5%. Adjusted EBITDA, that's non-GAAP was RMB173.4 million. That's up 215%, with a margin of 37.6%. Core net income, that's non-GAAP was RMB127.2 million with a margin of 27.6%. Cash provided by operating activities was RMB154.8 million.

Slide 6 shows detailed numbers for hotel, total revenues, income from operations, net incomes, and adjusted EBITDA.

On slide 7, operating performance was great. RevPAR was RMB156. At the bottom of this slide, you can see the weekly RevPAR performance in the third quarter of 2023 compared with 2019. RevPAR gradually recovered to more than 110% of its pre pandemic levels in July and August, then slowed down gradually in early September. During the mid-autumn festivals and the National Day, we ushered in a new round of development and the growth.

Slide 8 shows the operating performance of restaurant with ADS continuing an upward trend on reaching the highest level in a long time.

Now starting with slide 10, we will review our strategic execution across our businesses. In our hotel business, we further expanded in the mid to upscale segment an increased our penetration in Tier 3 and the lower cities in South China.

As you can see on slide 11, we continue to grow our mid to upscale segment with 455 hotels. That is 10.9% of our total portfolio. At the end of the quarter, up from only 50 in 2017. While the mid-scale segment remains the core of our hotel business with 70.8%, we continue our expansion into the higher-end segments. The economy segment remains stable at 18.3%.

Please turn to slide 12. Over the past five years most of our new hotels have been in China's thriving Tier 3 and lower cities. As we pursue greater penetration, interest rate, and lower cities, 73.7% of hotels in our current pipelines are in such cities, and we will further capitalize and there are substantial opportunities in such locations.

On slide 13, we continued to focus on increasing profitability in our restaurant business. We closed unprofitable stores, increased the proportion of franchised, and manage the restaurants, and expanded the number of street stores.

On slide 14, during the third quarter of 2023, we closed 10 restaurants in areas of decreasing economic activities, helping improving the profitability.

On slide 15, you can see the growth in the proportion of our franchised and managed the restaurants since the acquisition of Da Niang Dumplings and Bellagio during the first quarter of 2023. We opened six F&M restaurants in the third quarter of 2023.

Slide 16 shows the restaurant breakdowns by location. Most of our restaurants are currently in shopping malls. However, we believe there is a substantial potential for street stores and we intend to grow this segment.

Now let me turn the call over to Megan and Ellen Zhao. Megan?

Thank you, Alex. Please turn to slide 18 to start reviewing the operating and financial highlights. Slide 18 shows the trend in our quarterly operating performance. In the third quarter of 2023, RevPAR for our LO hotels increased to RMB212. RevPAR for our FM hotels increased to RMB155. ADR for our LO hotels increased to RMB268, and ADR for our FM hotels increased to RMB190. Occupancy at our LO hotels increased to 79%, and occupancy at our FM hotels increased to 81.3%.

Slide 19 highlights the growth in our membership programs which accounted for most of our direct sales. Individual memberships grew to 88 million, up from 77 million a year ago, and a corporate membership grew to 2.02 million, up from 1.92 million a year ago.

Now please turn to slide 20. In our restaurant business, the number of individual members grew to 2.67 million, up 1.6% year-over-year. ADS increased 7.4% to RMB6,548 in the third quarter of 2023 compared to one year before.

With that, I will pass the call over to our CFO, Selina Yang.

Thank you, Ellen. First, I will review our hotel business. Please turn to slide 21. In the third quarter, total hotel revenues increased 40.4% year-over-year to RMB339.1 million. The increase was primary due to the recovery in RevPAR and the increase in number of hotels.

Total hotel revenues increased 9.2% to RMB339.1 million compared to the second quarter of 2023. Total revenues for our FM hotels were RMB186 million, up 20.8% year-over-year, while total revenues from LO hotels increased to 83.1% to RMB151.8 million.

On slide 22, total hotel operating costs and expenses decreased 14.7% year-over-year to RMB212.4 million and total hotel operating costs and expenses decreased 0.5% compared to the second quarter. Total costs and expenses are composed of hotel operating costs, selling and marketing expenses, general and administrative expenses.

Operating costs were RMB159.9 million increased 12.1% year-over-year. The increase was mainly due to higher personnel costs, higher consumables, and higher utilities as business rebounded, as well as higher depreciation and amortization with increase in assets, partially offset by the deconsolidation of Argyle and Urban. Operating costs increased 6.5% to RMB159.9 million compared to a second quarter of this year.

Selling and marketing expenses were RMB14.3 million, a year-over-year increase of 24.9%. The increase was mainly attributable to higher sales channel commissions and higher sales staff salaries. Selling and marketing expenses increased 3.7% compared to second quarter of this year.

General and administrative expenses were RMB26.7 million, down 50.9% compared with same quarter of last year. The decrease was mainly due to lower bad debts, lower staff-related expenses, and lower consulting fees. General and administrative expenses decreased 40% to compared to second quarter of this year.

Turning to slide 23. Income from hotel operations increased from RMB1.3 million to RMB127.5 million year-over-year. Net income of hotels trend positive year-over-year at RMB108.5 million. Adjusted EBITDA increased 221.1% to RMB164.3 million. And core net income increased from RMB5.4 million to RMB118.1 million year-over-year.

Next, let me turn this call to over to Ellen, the Financial Director.

Please turn to slide 24. In the third quarter of 2023, total restaurant revenues, RMB121.8 million. You can also see the revenue breakdown for FM restaurants and LO restaurants.

On slide 25, total operating costs and expenses decreased 29.6% year-over-year to RMB111.8 million and decreased 2.6% sequentially. You can also observe that down trends in materials costs, personnel costs, and the rents.

Turning to slide 26, income from risk on operations was RMB10.3 million. Net income was RMB8.8 million. Adjusted EBITDA increased 134.4% to RMB9.1 million year-over-year. Core net income was RMB9.1 million.

Next Selina, please introduce the profitability of our group.

Please turn to slide 27. Group net income per ADS, basic and diluted, was RMB1.15. Group core net income per ADS, basic and diluted non-GAAP, was RMB 1.25.

Let's now take a look at slide 28. As of September 30, 2023, the company had total cash and cash equivalents, restrict cash, short-term investments, investments, equity securities, and time deposits of RMB1,331.4 million compared to RMB1,440.1 million as of June 30, 2023. The decrease was primary due to repayment of bank loans and investment of property, partially offset by cash from operating activities and repayments from franchisees.

On slide 29, based on our performance in the first nine months of this year, we revised our full year 2023 guidance for the total revenues of our organic hotels upwards. We now expect them to grow 36% to 38% year-over-year. We expect total combined revenues for our restaurant and organic hotel business for the full year of 2023 to grow 17% to 19% over the 2022 levels, reflecting the impact of the closure of restaurants.

Finally, a word about our share repurchase program. In October this year, the company repurchased 554,158 of its ADS from a single investor at price of USD4.40 per ADS for a total consideration of USD2,438,295.20, in a private negotiated transaction. The repurchase was made under the auspices of the company's share repurchase program for a total of USD10 million authorized by our Board of Directors for two years on October 13, 2023.

This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, we are now ready to begin the Q&A session.

(Operator Instructions)

Dan Xu. Morgan Stanley.

Hi, good morning. Thank you for the presentation. Alex and management. It's good to hear from you again. I have two questions. Maybe let me present my first question. My first question is about RevPAR outlook. From slide 7, I observed that since the beginning of -- since mid-autumn festival, there was very linear decline in terms of the RevPAR as a percentage to 2019.

And I think by beginning of November, it went to around 95% which was back to, I think, April levels. I'm just wondering, is this what was happening in the beginning of November? Was it due to low season or weakness of business? Was it due to timing of calendar differences. And what is the management's outlook for the remaining of the fourth quarter and possibly if you can, any outlook for 2024, please? That was my first question.

Okay. Thank you, Dan. Thank you for your question. For the first question about the RevPAR comparison for the national holiday, actually this year we have 8 days for the national holiday. And for the year of 2019, we have 7 days. So when we compared with the RevPAR with the year 2019, we compared the first -- the very beginning of the holiday here the last day and also compared the -- since we are on the third of the holiday period the last day.

So when we compare the third day of the holiday period end, we find our RevPAR increased by 20% over the year of 2019. But if we compare the whole period, that means, since we're on the first day to the end, we find the increase over 2019 will -- is about 7%.

Thank you, Selena. How about for November, early November, it seems that it has become a little bit below 100% for the weekly data, do you think that was a one-off or was there any calendar event also going on just like Golden week?

Okay. Dan, and more words about your first question, so the RevPAR for the October comparable with the '19, that is a 5% decrease compared with the 2019. Okay?

So for the next -- for the second second question why the whole period for the national holiday, the increase is less than 10% because we observe the first holiday of this year that is less than that first day of the 2019.

Let me continue to add on the comments, Dan, to the Selina's comments. After the national holidays, we typically experience a slowdown period and then the business travelers and work will resume before the end of the year. But on the November, we do see a slightly downward trend on the RevPAR. Traditionally, our business model has been more resilient than the downward or upward challenges of the fluctuation of hotel market.

So we will observe and to see whether before the year end whether there is going to be a major shift in upward trend. But at this moment, our November trend, we do see a slightly below that 2019 levels. So that is our projection at this moment because we have a relatively higher occupancy to begin with. So we may be able to adjust and our pricing structure and that will offset this downward pressure. Okay?

So, with regarding to the 2024, we believe the economic recovery will continue, but may be -- I'm a little bit uncertain, we do not know. I might be uncertain. So our business model in the past, then you have -- we have observed and are dealt with the to deal with this future changes. So we'll report in the next quarter what we observed for the earlier part of next year. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Alex and Selina for your detailed explanation. My last question is regarding your share repurchase program or share repurchase transaction. Can you share a little bit more of the details of rationale on this transaction in October?

We know that the -- our trading volumes, our daily trading volume and liquidity has been relatively lower compared to our peers. So I'm just wondering, is this a one-off transaction, so it just one time? Or does the company actively seeking from investors to do share repurchase in this sort of our transaction? And is there any concern on our liquidity from the management's perspective? Thank you so much.

With regard, Dan, the purchase of these privately negotiated transactions, since it is not an open market transaction, so it has not impacted the daily volume of our hotels ADS. We have a relatively lower volume because the number of floating shares, the percentage [I think] is much smaller. And besides, I think that the shares has also concentrated.

We are making efforts to increase -- trying to structure so that we may be able to help to increase the volume of the shares. And that's as far as the -- this transaction, the Board, I believe, this -- private investor that a block sales would benefit the entire shareholders. And so that's all I can share with you.

Thank you so much, Alex. That's it for my questions. Thank you.

(Operator Instructions)

Bruce Emmy with UBS.

Thanks Alex and Selina for taking my question. So, I actually have two questions and first one is regarding the hotel openings. So could you please share with us about your hotel opening plan for 2024 and your long term hotel operation target?

And the second question is still on RevPAR. So actually, we have observed strong leisure travel demand in the summer travel season and also the national day, The Golden Week. So but some investors worry that it may be a one-off pent-up demand after the China's reopening. So do you worry that this leisure travel demand could be sustained in next year? And what's your RevPAR assumption for 2024 and the Q1 next year? Thank you.

Okay. Thank you for your question. Maybe I can answer the first questions. Actually for this year, we have shared the number of signed contracts last time, that is 600 towards end this year. And hope for --we are likely to open more than 400 hotels this year. And for the next year, we plan to sign more than 650. That is about 650 to 680 hotels in the year of 2024 and we are likely to open 450 to 470 hotels in the next year. And that means that about 12% increase of this year to 15% increase of this year.

Okay. So with regard to the RevPAR projection, as we discussed earlier, the remaining of the fourth quarter of 2023, we believe the pressure is there. And the RevPAR comparable with the 2019, we were trying to make it stable and reach the same level. And we do not see a significant increase that will be the same as Q3 like during the summer vacation because that is driven by a leisure tourism.

And regarding the next year, because our hotels are primarily priced at the most affordable value driven and we do not believe that our system wide RevPAR will be impacted that much. There will be, I think, still continue the demand in the leisure tourism segments, especially on the affordable segment due to the large portion and a larger percentage increase in the retirees and there demand for the leisure travels.

And also we believe there will be a gradually recovery of economic activities resulting more business travels. But we certainly do not see the leisure travelers will be as strong as the last summer. So in our own assumptions, the same store, the same hotel RevPAR and our goal is to maintain the same.

And our system-wide RevPAR increase will be an upward because we'll continue to open more mid-to-upscale segment hotels. And that's right now around 11%. We'll continue to increase that percentage and meanwhile, we'll system wise or closing down certain -- that lease expired hotels. And so because of the way that change, we see the system-wide RevPAR continue to an upward increasing trend for the 2024.

Okay. Thank you, Selina, thank you, Alex. Very clear.

(Operator Instructions)

Simon Cheung, Goldman Sachs.

Hello, Simon.

So I was just referring to -- I have two questions. One is just on the hotel opening numbers that Selina was sharing I cannot miss that. Is that 650 or 680 and then there were another 450 and 470? Was that one is gross and another one is net for next year and this year?

And perhaps in or maybe just more broadly, given that you have given guidance for specifically the hotel as well as the restaurant segment overall for this year, perhaps you can give us a sense of your assumptions for fourth quarter? What sort of RevPAR are you expecting, what sort of hotel? And then similarly for restaurants? That's first question.

And then the second question is, when I look at your costs, particularly on a sequential basis, there's quite a bit of a cost saving across restaurant and hotel business. Can I -- and then I've observed that your hotel EBITDA margin back, what, 47%, 48%? Pretty much back to 50%. Just wanted to get a sense how you're thinking about scope for cost saving and the magnitude or potential for the margin expansion, if any. Thank you.

Thanks, Simon. I'll answer the first question. Regarding the margin, I'll leave that to Selina. So Simon, the 650 to 680, I believe that's what we shared with you, that's the signing up of hotels. And the 450 to 480 and so we have the internal projection, that's the opening of the hotels. So that's the number I want to clarify with you.

Regarding the net quarter's RevPAR and I just reiterate that I think that we continue to project and continue to work hard to achieve at least the same level of that of 2019. And so that's on this fourth quarter of 2023.

Okay. So with regarding the margin, I'll leave that to Selina.

Thank you, Simon. Here I wrote down two questions for you. The first one about the hotel. The restaurant margin, why was better than before? Because in this quarter, the restaurant, net income of the restaurant was nearly RMB10 million, so that's much better than before, I think for several reasons. The first one, as far as for the seasonality reasons and as the recovery of the industry, the performance of the restaurants was better than before.

Second reason for Da Niang, we closed 85 unprofitable stores over the past 12 months. And for the profitability of the remaining hotels was much better than before. And the third reason is that we changed the franchise model -- we have already begun to change the franchise model. We begin to open more street stores. And the CapEx at the very beginning, the investment and profitability from the -- was much better than before. And for [Luca], we can see the trend, the profitability trend was always stable. So that's why in the third quarter, we also -- for the Luca brand is also make money.

So your second question about the fourth quarter. Yes, after entering October, yes, we can find, yes, the profitability was a little downward than the third quarter. However, for Da Niang brand, as just explained, because of the model of our franchise model has begun to be adopted. So we expect the profitability of Da Niang brand in the fourth quarter as well, although the sales -- I mean the revenues decreased much year-over-year speaking.

So the future margin, Simon, that we projected that will slightly -- will continue to improve that margin. And we hope that the previous margin we generated will achieve that and maintain that level with the increase of our brand quality overall in terms of products and services. We'll continue to do, I think, a better job in that area.

And secondly, due to the market competition, we also lowered some of our fees to our franchisees such as reservation fees, such as the supporting fees, and other areas. And therefore, on the top line level, we'll see a slight impact, which will also impact our margin,

But we'll continue to improve the internal productivity and efficiency and also using the system and improve the management efficiency. So to go back to achieve the optimum margin. So that is our goal. So we have observed we still need -- I think considering the uncertainty and we have to work really hard to achieve that.

Thanks, Alex and Selina. That's about so. Can I just double check one more follow-up question, I guess. The fact that you think that you have been lowering your fee for franchisee in order to get more sign-up, is that what you’re saying? So that you are now expecting a step-up on your new hotels sign up that is a function of because from our perspective, I thought that the market environment has actually been very conductive to new hotel signing. But yes, did you say that you lower your fee or something? How competitive is the market is to be, just more broadly?

The we are not talking about the sign-up fees that -- the signed up for new hotels. We're considering the supporting of our existing franchisees by lowering certain ongoing like central reservation fees and various fees because a number of our franchisee restaurants, they still have a fair amount of obligations accumulated from the past three years. So in other words, we not only have our (technical difficulty) obligations, the rents, salaries, and they are currently incurring, you need these payments. They also have to go back to deal with the liabilities like most of the hotel and restaurants business accumulated from the past three years.

So as you know, we have shared with you the strengths and also the key value of system of the GreenTree is to help our franchisees to achieve their profitabilities. So we feel it is still urgent for us to help them and to increase their own profitability by adjusting some of our ongoing, while continuing to maintain our healthy profit margin.

And with the sign-up initial application fees, I think in the market overall, there is a downward trend in that area and that is given. And so I think that is going to be a very, very both -- the market that has full of opportunities in this hotel segment as well as there are also that more brand and the companies are competing in this area. So that is current -- our own assessment, Simon.

Sorry, can I just -- just to clarify. So you're saying that you lowered that fee, is it only for restaurants? I think, was a restaurant only or is it in general, wherever you see difficulty, whether there's hotel and restaurant, you generally have lower your fee across the board and how does?

No, this is -- we're only talking about the hotel sector for the centralized reservation fees.

I see,

For the restaurants, it is more -- the market is very more dynamic and fluent in a way because traditionally, a lot of our restaurants, for instance, like Da Niang Dumplings are located in the supermarket anchor, the local shopping malls and the traffic to those supermarket, the mall are down significantly. So the consumer behavior assumes a trend in that area. So as a result, we are rebalancing the mix. So by focusing on opening in a more stable traffic area, more street from store, street stores, and while closing down, those, I think primarily the reason. In the last 12 months we've closed 80, slowed down traffic areas restaurants.

But we think that with the repositioning of the restaurant locations increase the food quality for both of our brand, we will continue to achieve the profitabilities. I think that's the very, very important in the restaurant sector. And the then try to take advantage of the new market opportunities to provide a healty and value driven tasty food for our customers.

[Like I said], thanks a lot, Alex, thanks for the thorough answer. Thank you.

(Operator Instructions)

[Mah Yama, Steve Capital].

Hello, management. Firstly, congratulations on the excellent performance in the third quarter. Could you give a separate update on the recovery of the hotel and the restaurant business in the third quarter? Thank you.

Okay. Thank you for your question. Mr. Mah. Actually in the third quarter, yes, we can find our revenue has increased by more than 40.1% year-over-year speaking for the hotel business. And for our restaurant's business, the total revenues decreased by 13% year-over-year. That's because the closure of 84 -- 85 leased-operated stores over the past 12 years.

But for the same-store speaking, the third quarter's average daily sales per store increased 5% compared with the year of 2019, yeah. So for the EBITDA margin, yes, we can find for the hotel business -- actually EBITDA margin has recovered above 40%, has reached to 48%. And for the total, I mean including the hotel and the restaurant the total EBITDA margin has increased more than 13%, has reached to 37.6%.

Also there is a negative impact from the negative profitability of our leased-operated hotels. Because you know, we have opened more than 20 hotels during the COVID 19. And most of this, our leased-operated hotels turned negative to positive profitability since this quarter.

So due to the negative impact of the leased-operated hotels to our EBITDA margin, that -- the impact was about 6.5% to our EBITDA margins. That means if our lease operating hotels continues to recovery, tend to positive our blended EBITDA margin, we are likely to increase the other 6.5%. So that's what we observed for the third quarter's performance.

Okay, thank you.

Being no further questions, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the call back to Selina Yang for closing remarks.

Before the -- operator, there is a earlier question regarding -- I have looked at the question regarding the liquidity, I think I forgot to answer that question to Dan. Dan, so we only discussed about the privately negotiated or block sales in this stock repurchase. Regarding the liquidity, we have also there's the share price. We have implemented -- the Board of Directors have implemented a share repurchase program because we think the share price is undervalued and due to various factors.

Number one, after we became public traded companies, we made a few mergers and acquisitions. And due to the various factors, especially during the pandemic, some of the business are not performing or were not performing up to the standard.

So trigger that into various resolution dispute resolutions and which also interrupted some of our quarterly reports and also and can assume some of the management attention and the time. I think those are pretty much all resolved. So in the new areask we will continue to maintain a more frequent and dialogue with our investors and to and also to share our plan and the growth and the business operations more frequently with the various investors.

So secondly, that will continue to improve our core efficiencies and to improve this system a wide standard for our hotels and restaurants in terms of basically the products and service, consistent quality improvements. And with a consistent growth and consistent profitability, we believe the performance and also basically our company's liquidity will demonstrate the value of our company.

And the third we'll continue to explore ways to benefit our shareholders by deploying our current cash positions either by resuming routine dividend and the share repurchase or the continued investment in new opportunities. And we learned -- accumulated a lot of experience in this area. And so we have also demonstrated that we are able to make most of our units performing, even under some of the challenging conditions.

So the last point I want to make is the large shareholders about 90% of the GHD is held by GTI, a privately held companies. GTI has many shareholder unit. So we'll also trying to change the structure. And so give our shareholders direct access to the shares of the GHDs to further increase the liquidity. And then lastly, and if when the opportunity comes we may also considering follow-up offering of the shares and to further increase, again, the liquidity.

So overall, our Board of Directors have discussed many ways in the next few years to increase the profitability of the company and increase the share that liquidity and we hope the share price eventually will reflect the true value of the company. We're pretty confident in the next two -- three years or so, with our many, many new standardized our branded hotels in strategically located areas in a fast growing the second and third tier cities and was -- unleashed to new potentials of the company. So that is the answer, I will like to address the Dan's the first question regarding the liquidity, which I forgot earlier.

So thank you for reaching all those great questions, and thank you for all of you for your support and continued guidance and continued advice to the company.

With that, I'll pass the call to -- I'll pass the microphone to Selina.

Thank you, Alex. Again, on behalf of our entire GreenTree management team, we thank you for your interest in Greentree and your participation in today's call. If you require any further information or have plans to reach us, please feel free to contact us. This concludes today's call. Thank you.

Thank you all.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.