New World Development Company Limited (17) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Friends of the investment sector, good afternoon. Welcome to New World Development's 2021 FY Interim Results Presentation. This is the online analyst meeting. I am [ Carrie ], General Manager of the Investors Relations department, moderator for this session. Let me introduce to you our management. We have Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, Dr. Adrian Cheng; CFO, Mr. Edward Lau. If you have any questions, please type the questions into the chat box of the webcast. Because of time, we will pick some questions to be answered. Now we will pass the floor to the management.

Investors, good afternoon. I am CFO of New World as of now. I will first present our group's 2021 FY first half results. Please turn to Page 8. Through active management, in 2021 FY, our results were better than expectation. We believe the worst time has been over. Our revenue was HKD 35.6 billion, up 10% year-on-year. Mainly came from property development, property investment and core assets of NWS. Profit attributable to shareholders, HKD 1 billion. Comparing with the same period of last year, it is stable. COVID-19 was volatile. But we are stringently controlling our cost and expenses. So our recurrent administrative expenses was down 12% year-on-year. Comparing with FY 2020, at that time, we were down 8%. So we had made improvements. Through distributing stable interim dividend and also in December 2020, we bought back 10.4 million shares of NWD, we actually paid back to investors' support. In Hong Kong, in the first half of the year, property contracted sales reached HKD 26.3 billion. It exceeded our full year target of HKD 20 billion. In Mainland China, in the first half fiscal year, property contracted sales was RMB 11.2 billion, slightly higher than our half year result. For the whole year, we want to achieve mid- to high double-digit -- single-digit growth. From 2021 FY till now, we successfully sold noncore assets of HKD 12.8 billion, including HKD 3.2 billion of bus service, RMB 1.3 billion of Wuhan office properties, HKD 6.5 billion sewage treatment business and RMB 400 million Northern China residential property management business and others. So this year, we will exceed the target of HKD 13 billion to HKD 15 billion of sale of noncore assets. Page 10. You can see that our property development revenue was up 7%, mainly from Ningbo New World Plaza Land. More sales revenue will be booked in the second half of 2021. In Hong Kong, about HKD 4 billion to HKD 5 billion main revenue was from Artisan Garden and Atrium House. In the whole year 2021 FY, Hong Kong sales revenue will reach HKD 7 billion to HKD 8 billion. Because of a time difference, in the second half there is more revenue than first half in Hong Kong. In Mainland China, revenue booked for the whole year is more or less the same as last year. It mainly came from Prince Bay, Guangzhou project and Shenyang New World Garden. Segment profit was down 40%. This is because the booked GBA project gross profit margin was slightly lower. For the group, our consolidated gross profit margin was 32%, which is healthy. For GBA project, gross profit margin was 66%, which is strong. For Pavilia Farm, our contract sales exceeded HKD 23 billion. In only 6 weeks, we already surpassed the HKD 20 billion target -- sales target for 2021 FY. Now we are applying for presale consent for Phase III. And this project had broken our record in the past 23 years in Hong Kong, it is known as The New Media King by the media. We have incorporated a post-pandemic concept into our building and design. In order to avoid gathering of people, Pavilia Farm is the first project in Hong Kong applying blockchain technology in proptech, and we encouraged buyers to apply in a paperless way, and we greatly shortened application processing time. Those who cannot get slots in the first price list will automatically be moved into the next price list. So this enhances our competitive advantage. 888 Lai Chi Kok Road, this is the first commercial property project to be sold after the abolition of double stamp duty of the government for nonresidential properties. The first 44 units were sold within the first hour, very quickly. And sales reached HKD 600 million, breaking the transaction record for nonresidential property in Hong Kong. Up till now, we have sold more than 70 units and 2 full storeys, encashing HKD 1.9 billion. Average price was HKD 30,000 per square foot. In 2021 first half, we realized RMB 11.2 billion contracted sales, exceeding half year target. And Greater Bay Area contribution was more than 76%. ASP was RMB 39,000 per square meter, higher than other companies' projects. For GBA project, gross margin is particularly high at 66%, and ASP was more than RMB 51,000 per square meter. In GBA, we have altogether 5.6 million square meter of land bank, which can be developed immediately and also agricultural land pending modification. This includes both Hong Kong and Mainland China, accounting for 62% of our total land reserve. On 27th of January, together with Imperium Group (sic) [ Empire Group ], CSI Properties and also Lai Sun Development, we've formed a consortium, and we successfully won the bid for Southside Phase 5 project in the superstructure of Wong Chuk Hang Station. Total GFA 636,000 square feet and 2 residential blocks can be built, offering no less than -- or no more than 1,050 units and average area will be 600 per square feet with unblocked sea view, mountain view and good support facilities. Definitely, it is going to see the same success as Pavilia farm. And at the reserve price of HKD 4.8 billion, we won the title of North Point State Theatre Building. We undertook to preserve this iconic building with 68 years of history. This is the first grade 1 historical building being sold in Hong Kong in public auction. Total GFA 446,000 square feet, preserving more than 500 artifacts. We will try our best to regain vitality for this monument building, so that it will become a cultural oasis. The pandemic has brought about a lot of challenges to the external environment, but rental income was still up 6%, in Hong Kong up 7%; Mainland China up 4%. Every year, K11 organizes many events to drive sales and footfall. Next week, our LEGOLAND will be opened in K11 MUSEA, and there will be other well-renowned brands coming in. In first half 2021 FY, Hong Kong K11 retail sales was up 56%. During the same period, Hong Kong retail sales was down 13%. We took this opportunity to expand our market share. Since 2021 till now, that is February -- January and February, Hong Kong K11 MUSEA retail sales was up 54%. Hong Kong overall K11 retail sales was up 41%, driving the retail sales growth of 81% in Greater China. The pandemic has affected the whole 2020. However, for K11 Mall, occupancy rate is still high. K11 MUSEA and K11 Art Mall occupancy rate is almost 100%. We use technology to grab market share. For example, through K11 App and K11 Go to do live streaming, we have attracted more than 3 million views. For our KLUB 11 member scheme, we successfully expanded the ecology, and we attracted members to do repeat purchase. For K11 member spending, on an H-o-H basis, it was up 110%. In Mainland China, K11 successfully seized the opportunities from consumption upgrade and domestic circulation. Its mall sales in 2021 FY first half was up 35% year-on-year, but the market only grew 3%. In 2021 January and February, Mainland China K11 retail sales was up 149% year-on-year. With WeChat mini program K11 Go, we continued to drive member spending. And member sales on H-o-H basis was up 91%. In December last year, Wuhan K11 Art Mall Phase II was opened. It is the first new mall which was opened during the pandemic or after the pandemic, and we benefited from revenge spending. In the first -- or the first 3 days, we successfully attracted 700 gold card members, and we achieved sales of 5x that of the opening of K11 in Guangzhou in 2018. In 2025, for K11 China, the attributable GFA will increase to 1.3 million square meters or 2.5x that of now. With the rapid growth of K11 China, we're going to expand property -- commercial property management revenue. 11 Skies is going to be the biggest integrated development project in Hong Kong, adjacent to the Hong Kong Airport. It doesn't only face Hong Kong residents. Within 1.5 hour of living circle, this project will attract 31.6 million population from Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Foshan, accounting for 44% of the total population in GBA. We will invest HKD 20 billion in this mixed-use development project, including 800 stores, 120 F&B stores and also K11 Atelier will be responsible to operate 3 Grade A office blocks. And KidZania and SkyTrack will come in to form the biggest indoor entertainment center. K11 Atelier has already locked in a number of cornerstone tenants, including BOC Hong Kong, Citibank, Standard Chartered, FTLife, Trinity Medical Centre and so on. In Hong Kong and Mainland China, the group operates 14 K11 projects. In the coming 5 years, there will be an increase of 24. Hong Kong K11 rental income will see a mid- to high single-digit CAGR. And for Mainland, it will have 25% to 30% CAGR. Our malls have brought about property management opportunities, so we can create light asset cash flow. In 2021 FY, we successfully sold noncore assets of HKD 12.8 billion, HKD 3.2 billion of bus, RMB 1.3 billion Wuhan office, HKD 6.5 billion sewage treatment business, RMB 400 million residential property management. We are confident to exceed the target of sales of noncore assets of HKD 13 billion to HKD 15 billion. So we can use the cash to invest in high-efficiency and high-return businesses and optimize our portfolio. Our financing cost last year was 4.05%. It came down drastically to 2.93%. Net gearing ratio improved from 41.6% to 40.6%. In January this year, we issued sustainability-linked bond of USD 200 million. We are the first property developer issuing sustainability-linked USD bond in the world. The coupon rate is 3.75%. Around 80% of the investors are international ESG investors. The group promised that in 2026 or before, the rental properties in GBA will use renewable energy 100%. And in this fiscal year, we issued 3 bonds with historically lowest interest rate. So this can help lower our future financing cost. ESG. In the first half, we are still the international leader in ESG integration. We adopted further climate actions in order to mitigate the climate crisis globally. Among main international ESG rating companies, we got good recognition. For example, in 2019, we got the highest rating from GRESB. And then in 2020, we were rated globally #1 in terms of climate resilience. We'll continue to promote our performance in 2020 vision. Our progress is in line with expectation. In the first half, we had already reduced carbon emission by 26%. In 2020 FY, that was 22%. So we are above that. As a forward-looking company, we are strengthening our governance to promote climate action. All ESG matters, especially climate risk, are supervised by the Board. And then we support TCFD, for example, our 14 GBA projects have already got climate resilience building and design guidance. And then we incorporate no-coal pledge or net-0 carbon undertaking in our climate change policy, and we have signed SBT, science-based targets. We will work towards limiting the temperature rise globally to 1.5-degree Celsius. SBT is supported by United Nations, 400 international companies have signed this pledge, namely Business Ambition for 1.5 degrees Celsius. And 13 companies among the 400 are property companies. And then we are the third company in Asia following Swire Properties and also City Developments Limited. And for the coming 10 years, we have already formulated renewable energy blueprint. And through self production, electricity purchase agreements and renewable energy certificates, we will enhance our utilization of renewable energy. We will also incorporate social elements into our talent strategy. And then concerning indirect carbon emission, this is about Hong Kong and Mainland tenants and also the impact from construction materials. So that's all about our results. Now let me pass the floor back to Dr. Cheng. Right.

Regarding New World Development, in terms of technology ecosystem, well, we have some very unique growth potentials. Our ecosystem covers 17 businesses with 400-odd working partners, covering all elements of customers' life. So this can enhance our inner circulation. For our ecosystem, the system continues to expand and rise in value. Through high-tech, for example, our customer relationship management, CRM, K Dollar reward system, for 14 million members, we do customer data analysis and precise marketing in order to enhance repeat purchase. And this is only done by us. We have been doing that for a few years. And now this ecosystem is already materializing. So from enhancing customer loyalty, we hope to increase cross-selling. So if we look at the benchmark, in 2020, the relative growth was 17x in cross-selling. And this is also CAGR. This is in the form of CAGR. Now talking about our ecosystem, we have 14 million customers, including retail, health care, housing, medical service and so on. So for our ecosystem, we have both hardware and software for cross-selling and inner circulation. We have achieved a very high benchmark. Together with internet companies and banks and other strategic partners, we will attract public domain traffic to our private domain. And comparing with other people, we are more outstanding because of our CRM and big data analytics technology, which have built a full and complete ecosystem covering all areas of life. With our K Dollar reward scheme and O2O platform, including K11 Go in China, our online platform, and K11 App in Hong Kong, our customers and members of the public are given all around high-quality spending opportunities and personalized service. We have been doing this for a few years. We are deepening our service. We have 4 tech pillars to improve customer experience. First, we use AI and big data to understand customers' preference to drive repeat purchase. Step 1, with CRM and big data, our internal data analytic team gather huge amount of information from the ecology to understand customer preference. Step 2, we'll use AI data to analyze and build customer database. Step 3, through K11 Go and K11 App, we enhance O2O experience. We do precise recommendation and also live streaming product, to stimulate sales. K Dollar, KPOS are unique for us. This is step 4. We want to drive instant earn and burn. For K Dollar, people said that it is the same as other spending cultures. No, it's not. K Dollars can be regarded as currency. Comparing with other reward schemes, K Dollar has 2 competitive advantages: number one, there is no earning limits; number two, there is no burning condition. So it is used as currency. It is very easy to use. K Dollar achieved integration of platform and currency. It enhanced the cross-selling opportunities between business units in the ecosystem. K Dollar can increase the opportunity of repeat purchase or recurring spending. We have done a survey. After the launch of K Dollar, for each K Dollar spending, it can generate 4 to 5x of spending multiples for the group. Let me give an example, for Pavilia Farm, buyers have joined New World Club, and they get K Dollar rewards. And in 2021 FY, we plan to give out 100 million K Dollar. And then in the coming 3 fiscal years, we will issue 300 million K Dollars. Our group works with Chow Tai Fook Jewellery, and every year, we will issue 30 million of K Dollar. And 2 years later, we plan to issue a few times more. Now we talked about cross-selling between insurance and retail. If we look at 2017 to 2019, comparing with 2020, that is the 3-year average comparing with 2020, cross-selling amount has raised 17x -- has risen 17 times. And then if you use 2020 as the benchmark, the relative growth was 4x. And then if you look at overlapping members, in the first year to the fifth year, well, their CAGR was 35%. So they like you more with more overlapping, there would be more cross-selling. And so spending will get higher and higher. In terms of technology, IoT, automation, we are doing a good job. First, residential. Among Hong Kong property developers, we are the first to offer smart home technology, especially in Mainland China, among Hong Kong enterprises. In China, we have launched new IoT system offering personalized and comfortable experience. We work with IoT companies, and then we offer high-quality smart home technology and most advanced design and building options. And in the future, we will launch 13,000 units equipped with smart design in China. For offices, we use robotic technology in cleansing and sanitization and also in the F&B business. So this can enhance efficiency and hygiene level and lower cost. [Audio Gap] Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]