Home Inns Q2 net income up 160.2%

Home Inns and Hotels Management Inc, a major economy hotel chain in China, earned 1.6 billion yuan ($260 million) in revenue in the second quarter of 2013, a 10.5 percent year-on-year rise, the group reported on Tuesday.

The group's net income increased 160.2 percent on a yearly basis to 94.8 million yuan during the period.

The integration of Motel 168, which was acquired by Home Inns in 2011, brought the group more income, Home Inns said in its statement.

"Motel 168 hotels continued their trend of performance improvements as a result of solid execution of our integration plans," said Sun Jian, the group's chief executive officer.

Home Inns opened 100 new hotels in the second quarter of 2013 and operated 1,953 hotels across 271 cities in China under its three brands as of June 30, 2013.

The group plans to open 400 new hotels in 2013, it said in the statement.

Greater cost control is also a reason for its income increase.

"Our cost control and productivity measures have proven effective in generating sustainable benefits to protect margin," Sun said.

However, Home Inns still lowered its total revenue expec-tation for the year slightly to from 6.35 billion yuan to 6.5 billion yuan, growth of 10.1 to 12.7 percent from 2012.