Fosun Tourism Group Announces 2019 Annual Results

Net profit attributable to shareholders doubled to RMB609 million

Smooth progress of FOLIDAY Town and continued perfection of FOLIDAY ecosystem

Results highlights:

• Tourism operation saw a robust growth with net profit attributable to shareholders doubled. Business volume of tourism operation increased by 8.9%, adjusted EBITDA increased by 79.9% and net profit attributable to shareholders reached RMB609 million.
• Continued to enhance the leading position in resort operation as the resort business grew rapidly. Club Med's business volume increased by 5.2% to RMB13.21 billion with all three markets recording dynamic growths.
• Acquired Casa Cook and Cook's Club brands in November 2019 and signed contracts with four resorts within four months after the acquisition.
• The first tourism destination project achieved good results. Atlantis Sanya recorded a business volume of RMB 1.3 billion with EBITDA margin reaching 43% in 2019.
• FOLIDAY Town, a new tourism destination brand smoothly launched. Lijiang and Taicang FOLIDAY Towns are expected to launch presale in 2020.
• Acquired a centurial brand to build a brand-new lifestyle platform. Completed the acquisition of the Thomas Cook's brand in 2019 and will integrate and upgrade to a global family lifestyle platform.   

HONG KONG, March 18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Fosun Tourism Group ("Fosun Tourism" or the "Company"; together with its subsidiaries, the "Group", Stock Exchange stock code: 01992), the world's leading leisure-focused integrated tourism group, is pleased to announce its annual results for the year ended 31 December 2019.

Encouraging business growth with net profit attributable to parent nearly doubled

For the year ended 31 December 2019, the Group recorded a revenue of approximately RMB17.34 billion, representing a 6.6% growth. The Group's business volume of tourism operation business increased by 8.9% to RMB14.6 billion. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 79.9% and net profit attributable to shareholders doubled to RMB609 million.

The Board of Directors proposed to recommend a final dividend for the year ended 31 December 2019 HK$0.02 per share. Together with the interim dividend, the dividend for the full year were HK$0.09.

Enhanced leading position in resort operation with a dynamic growth of Club Med and the acquisition of new resort brands

As at 31 December 2019, the Group operated 66 Club Med resorts and has operations in more than 40 countries and regions over the six continents. During the year, the business volume reached RMB13.21 billion, increased by 5.2%. The recurring EBITDA excluding impact of implementing IFRS 16 increased by 9.1%.

The Group continues to promote its upscaling strategy, enhancing upscale and offerings. The capacity of 4&5 Trident resorts increased from 80.1% by the end of 2018 to 85.0% by the end of 2019. Beneficial from hot selling of winter ski products and the increased capacity of 4&5 Trident resorts, average daily bed rate increased by 5.6% to RMB1,330.

Globalization strategy continues to be effectively implemented. In 2019, the number of customer visits to resorts reached 1.5 million, an increase of 3.2%. Among them, the number of customer visits from Greater China increased from 243,000 in 2018 to 282,000 in 2019, maintaining a growth in consecutive ten years, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.0%. The Group recorded dynamic growths across all three regions especially the growth in Brazil, the United Kingdom and Australia markets.

Mr. Henri Giscard d'Estaing, Vice Chairman of the Board and Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Fosun Tourism, said, "2019 was again a satisfying year for Club Med with good financial results and many achievements for our brand and our customer experience. To further leverage on Club Med's ski advantage, we successfully opened our Alpe d'Huez mountain resort and Grand Massif Chalets in France, besides the successful launch of Miches beach resort in the Dominican Republic and Club Med Joyview in Yanqing, China. We strive to develop high-end and pioneering ski and seaside resort products in the future, well-balanced geographically. It will include a beach resort in Seychelles, a mountain resort in La Rosière (French Alps) and a mountain resort in Quebec Charlevoix, Canada to be opened from 2020 and beyond. In addition, we have signed several contracts to open new resorts in China in the next few years, including Club Med resorts and Club Med Joyview resorts in the Lijiang and Taicang FOLIDAY Towns, self-developed projects by Fosun Tourism."

With the acquisition of the Casa Cook and Cook's Club hotel brands, the Group's resort brand portfolio has been further enriched to meet the diversified market needs. Within four months after the acquisition, the Group has signed four hotels and planned to develop at least 15 resorts under Casa Cook and Cook's Club brands in the coming three years.

The Group's first tourism destination project achieved good results and new brand "FOLIDAY Town" launched successfully

In 2019, the operation revenue of the Group's tourism destination, Atlantis Sanya, amounted to RMB1.3 billion, increased by 74.2%, EBITDA increased to RMB564.8 million with EBIDTA margin reaching 43%. During the year, the number of customer visits to Atlantis Sanya reached 5.2 million

Leveraging on the successful operation of Atlantis Sanya, the Group quickly launched the development of new tourism destinations. In November 2019, the Group launched "FOLIDAY Town" brand to gather numerous leading global tourism and leisure brands by leveraging the global FOLIDAY ecosystem of Fosun Tourism, leading to a brand-new leisure lifestyle. Currently, construction works of the Lijiang and Taicang FOLIDAY Town projects are underway and the two projects are expected to launch presale of saleable vacation units in 2020.

Building up Thomas Cook lifestyle platform

In 2019, FOLIDAY distribution platform achieved business volume of RMB476.5 million, a significant increase of 123.0%.  Since the acquisition of Thomas Cook brand from Thomas Cook Group plc and its subsidiaries in November 2019, the Group strives to integrate Thomas Cook into a lifestyle platform serving family customers across the world. The lifestyle platform has included the businesses of Foryou Travel and Kuyi which were originally under the FOLIDAY distribution platform. It also includes tourism and leisure services and products.

Strong financial position with sufficient cash reserves facing the epidemic 

Despite the outbreak of the COVID-19 since the end of January 2020, the Group recorded a strong performance in the first two months of 2020 with the resort operation increased by approximately 8%, and EBITDA increased over 20%, compared with the same period in 2019. Although the business volume of tourism destinations operation has been affected by the epidemic, EBITDA remained positive for the first two months of 2020, reaching about RMB 50 million. In 2019 the Group has a strong financial position, cash and cash equivalent was approximately RMB2.1 billion and unused bank facilities was approximately RMB2.5 billion. It is expected that the COVID-19 will have negative short-term impacts on the Group, but it will not affect the Group's development in the long-term.

Mr. Qian Jiannong, Chairman of the Board, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Fosun Tourism said, "Fosun Tourism achieved steady growth in core business with net profit attributable to shareholder doubled in 2019. Meanwhile, as the leader in the leisure resorts operation worldwide, our brand edge in leisure tourism sector was enhanced through the acquisition of Thomas Cook brand and two hotel brands - Casa Cook and Cook's Club in 2019. By developing FOLIDAY ecosystem both online and offline, our business model has becoming a recommended sample. The current epidemic is changing consumer's perception on consumption profoundly. Consumers generally expects a higher quality and better service in tourism. To further promote product upgrade in the tourism industry, the Chinese government announced "Implementation Suggestions on Promoting a Higher Quality and an Expansion of Capacity in the Consumer Sector to Foster a Robust Domestic Market" on March 13, 2020. We believe that our upgraded products will better meet the market's future demand. We proactively respond to the epidemic with reasonable cost control on operation and headquarters' expenses and maintaining stable financial position. The current epidemic is an international public health crisis, yet our innovative business model helps the Group to withstand the crisis, grape the rebound opportunities after the epidemic crisis and look for opportunity and driving force of sustainable growth amid the crisis."

Financial Highlights:

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About Fosun Tourism Group

Fosun Tourism Group ("Fosun Tourism", Stock Exchange stock code: 1992) is one of the world's leading leisure-focused integrated tourism groups, and the largest leisure tourism resorts group worldwide in terms of revenue in 2019. Through the lifestyle proposition, "Every day is FOLIDAY," the Group seek to infuse concepts of tourism and leisure into everyday living. The Group was listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in December 2018.