BEIJING, March 28 -- Christopher Bachran, the first foreigner to head a State-owned company in China, lost his job as president of Jinjiang group's hotel-management unit after presiding over an eightfold profit increase in two years.

    Bachran, 56, will leave Jinjiang International Hotel Management Co, which operates Shanghai's famous Peace Hotel, next month after his contract wasn't renewed, the US hotelier said Friday. Zhao Weishi, spokesman for the unit, declined to comment on the reason for his departure.

    "I achieved the company's plan," Bachran, a former Sheraton and Radisson hotels executive, said. "Maybe it's time for them to pass the more mature company to someone else."

    Bachran's departure highlights the lack of top foreign executives at China's State-owned companies, three years after the government started a campaign to recruit overseas talent. Jinjiang, China's biggest hotel operator, hired Bachran to modernize its management as competition intensifies with overseas hotel chains such as Accor SA and Intercontinental Hotels Group Plc.

    "He seems a bit isolated from the Chinese management team," said Zhao Xueqin, an analyst who covers hotel stocks at Haitong Securities Co in Shanghai. "Jinjiang is likely to appoint another foreign president. The company is trying to create an international image."

    Jinjiang International Holdings Co, the group's holding company, operates more than 200 hotels in 59 cities, according to the company's website, including the Peace Hotel, a 1929-built landmark on Shanghai's Bund riverfront that is the city's oldest and best-known luxury hotel.

    "Jinjiang will maintain its strategy of adopting more international expertise as it expands in the domestic and overseas markets," spokesman Zhao said. He declined to say whether Bachran's replacement will be from China or overseas. "Our achievements in the past years are based on great teamwork, not individual success."

    The Chinese Government has sought overseas expertise to improve the performance of State-owned companies as the economy is opened wider to foreign competition after the nation joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

    The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, a ministry set up to control the biggest State companies, started a global hiring drive for top positions in 2003. The ministry has yet to announce a single appointment under the programme.

    Bachran was hired by Jinjiang on a two-year contract in March 2004. Under his tenure, net income at the hotel-management unit, which operates 85 of the group's hotels, rose to 72.1 million yuan (US$9 million) last year from 9.01 million yuan in 2003, and revenue almost doubled to 201.7 million yuan, from 113.6 million yuan.

    The unit contributed 37 per cent of 2005 net income at publicly traded Shanghai Jinjiang International Hotels Development Co, which holds the group's hotel business, and was the listed company's most profitable arm with an operating profit margin of 91.7 per cent last year.

    Shanghai International Hotels shares were little changed at 7.12 yuan on the Shanghai stock exchange yesterday morning, and have gained 6.6 per cent this year, compared with a 3.1 per cent increase in the benchmark Shanghai composite index. The company last month posted a 28 per cent jump in 2005 net income to 193.2 million yuan.

    Overseas chains such as France's Accor are expanding in China as rising incomes spur demand for leisure. China's 768.6 billion yuan tourism market expanded 12.4 per cent in 2005 and growth is forecast to average almost 10 per cent annually for the next decade, according the World Travel and Tourism Council.

    Paris-based Accor plans to almost double its hotels in China to 50 in the next two years, from 29 now. Windsor, Britain-based Intercontinental Hotels, which has opened 48 hotels in China, plans to triple its portfolio to 125 by the end of 2008.

    Shanghai's government in 2003 merged Jinjiang Group Co and Shanghai New Asia Group to create Jinjiang International Holdings, which is also the largest Asian-owned hotel company.

    Jinjiang's Bachran oversaw the introduction of advanced booking systems and training programs, aiming to prepare the company for expansion overseas as well as improve competitiveness in the domestic market.

    The biggest challenge was changing the mindset of management, he said in a July 2004 interview with Hotels Magazine that was posted on Jinjiang's website.

    (Source: China Daily)