Core Viewpoint - Guosen Securities maintains an "outperform" rating for Huazhu Group-S (01179), highlighting the company's solid industry leadership and accelerated performance growth in Q3, with revenue and net profit exceeding expectations, particularly in the China region [1] Group 1: Q3 Performance - Huazhu's hotel revenue reached approximately 30.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.5%, with Huazhu China growing by 18.4% [1] - Q3 revenue was 6.96 billion yuan, up 8.1% year-on-year, surpassing the previous guidance of 2-6% [1] - Net profit attributable to shareholders was 1.47 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.4%, with adjusted net profit at 1.52 billion yuan, up 10.8% [1] - Huazhu China's revenue was 5.72 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.8%, exceeding the previous guidance of 4-8% [1] Group 2: Membership and Revenue Management - Q3 mixed RevPAR for Huazhu China was 256 yuan, with positive growth in average daily rate (ADR) of 0.9% [2] - Membership numbers surpassed 300 million, a year-on-year increase of 17.3%, with member booking nights rising by 19.7% to over 66 million, accounting for 74% of total nights [2] - Q3 DH mixed RevPAR grew by 6.4% year-on-year [2] Group 3: Store Expansion and Profitability - In the first three quarters, the company opened 2,038 new stores and closed 483, resulting in a net increase of 1,555 stores [3] - The company expects to exceed the initial target of opening 2,300 stores for the year, with 12,600 operating hotels and a market share estimated at 11% [3] - Q3 group franchise revenue and gross operating profit (GOP) increased by 27.4% and 28.6% year-on-year, respectively [3] Group 4: Q4 Outlook - The company anticipates Q4 revenue growth of 2-6%, with domestic growth of 3-7% and franchise revenue growth of 17-21% [4] - Q4 domestic RevPAR is expected to remain stable or see slight increases, indicating a generally healthy development trend [4] - The company believes that despite uncertainties in business travel demand, industry data has stabilized, suggesting that business travel has not weakened further [4]