Swire Properties Limited (1972) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Swire Properties 2023 Interim Results Analyst Briefing. Before we begin, let me first introduce the hosts of today's briefing. With us on stage are Mr. Tim Blackburn, Chief Executive of Swire Properties; and Ms. Fanny Lung, Finance Director of Swire Properties. Tim and Fanny will first take us through this year's interim results, then we'll proceed to a Q&A session. Before we start the presentation, may we first take a look at a short video with highlights of the company's key developments and milestones over the first 6 months of this year. Please enjoy. [Presentation]

Hope you all enjoyed the video. May I now invite Tim and Fanny to walk us through the presentation. Tim, please?

Well, good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Swire Properties 2023 Interim Results Briefing. As usual, I'll take you through the results and the highlights, our strategy, and I'll touch on the key developments as well as the portfolio updates. And Fanny will cover the financial highlights, the ESG and digital transformation. And then I'll close on a few comments -- with a few comments on the outlook for the second half of this year. So following the lifting of the pandemic-related restrictions and the reopening of the borders in the first quarter, we've seen a strong recovery in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland, particularly for our retail and hotel business, while our office portfolio has been resilient despite the soft market conditions here in Hong Kong. Our $100 billion investment plan is on track, as is our aim to deliver mid-single-digit dividend growth. In this context, I'm pleased with the solid set of results for the first half of 2023. In terms of recurring profit, the result was up 6% relative to the first half of last year, whilst underlying profit was down 6% due to lower disposal gains from the sale of car parking spaces in Taikoo Shing. In March last year, based on our development pipeline, we announced the plan to invest HKD 100 billion over the next decade. This slide includes a breakdown of the allocation of capital by market and the specific projects which we have successfully secured. I'm pleased to say that we continue to make good progress with approximately 40% now committed to new projects in our core markets in Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland and in Southeast Asia. With a balanced portfolio, we're making progress in all key areas. In Hong Kong, we successfully attained 100% ownership of the Wah Ha Factory Building in Quarry Bay for a potential office development. We've now sold 33 of the 37 units at EIGHT STAR STREET and presales for LA MONTAGNE in Wong Chuk Hang commenced earlier this month. In Chengdu, we completed the acquisition of the remaining 35% interest in Taikoo Li Chengdu. And in Southeast Asia, we acquired a 40% stake in a prime residential site on Wireless Road in Bangkok. Sales of car parks in Taikoo Shing have been slightly delayed, but we will make up ground in the fourth quarter with over 650 spaces having been sold in the past few weeks. This slide shows the diverse and high-quality pipeline of new projects, which will support our long-term growth targets in Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland and Southeast Asia. In 2023, Six Pacific Place is due to complete at the end of this year, thereby extending Pacific Place footprint in the Greater Admiralty area. So our Hong Kong office portfolio has continued to be resilient with 94% overall occupancy net of the new Two Taikoo Place building. Occupancy at Pacific Place is stable at 97%. Taikoo Place, One Island East and One Taikoo Place occupancy is also currently at 97%. Occupancy across the other Taikoo Place towers is at 93% whilst occupancy at our newest triple grade A office building, Two Taikoo Place, is at 56%, which is encouraging given the soft current market conditions. The negative rental reversions reflect the prevailing weak market sentiment. The attributable valuation of the office portfolio increased by 4% to $177 billion. I presented this slide before, and I think I showed this to you in May, as an illustration of the ongoing transformation of Taikoo Place into a global business district with approximately 9 million square feet of grade A office together with Cityplaza retail, EAST Hotel and all the associated restaurants and bars and services and amenities. Our latest triple grade A office building, Two Taikoo Place, which was completed late last year, is surrounded by 2 large open public spaces, Taikoo Square and Taikoo Garden. And the red and pink areas highlight future office and residential development opportunities. As Hong Kong rebounds post pandemic, we're excited about the long-term future of Taikoo Place as a global business district within the Greater Bay Area. Moving on to Hong Kong retail. We've seen a strong rebound in the first half of this year. Occupancy at The Mall at Pacific Place is at 97%. The Cityplaza and Citygate Outlets have both achieved 100%, thanks to the tireless efforts of the team and the committed partnership approach we adopted during the pandemic. Thanks to a combination of the relaxation of social distancing measures, the reopening of the borders, industry-leading marketing campaigns and programs and events, together with the government's consumption voucher scheme, year-on-year retail sales continued to recover strongly with growth of 12% in Cityplaza, 60% in Pacific Place and 62% in Citygate Outlets. The Chinese Mainland market is now a significant contributor to revenue growth, contributing 40% of gross rental income in the first half of this year. And this contribution has been further enhanced by the acquisition of the remaining 50% interest in Taikoo Li Chengdu in the first quarter. In the Chinese Mainland, retail sales have continued to recover strongly, exceeding pre-pandemic levels for many of our malls. All the malls have performed well with Taikoo Li Qiantan in Shanghai leading the way. Overall, attributable retail sales were up 41% year-on-year and occupancy rates across the Chinese Mainland portfolio remain high. The performance of our Chinese Mainland office portfolio is stable with overall occupancy between 90% and 98%. Demand in Jing'an District in Shanghai, in particular, has remained healthy. This slide illustrates the company's 2 major growth engines in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland. And the current pipeline of investment properties will increase attributable GFA in Hong Kong by 7% and in the Chinese Mainland by 48% over the next few years relative to the 2022 baseline. This includes our increased share in Taikoo Li Chengdu as well as INDIGO phase 2 and 2 high-quality retail-led development joint ventures in Xi'an and in Sanya. Further afield in Miami, retail sales are also up 7% year-on-year, while occupancy has also increased slightly to 90% as the team delivers on our plans to improve the trade mix at Brickell City Centre. So moving to the trading portfolio in Hong Kong. We've continued to strengthen our pipeline in Hong Kong with positive sales progressing at EIGHT STAR STREET. And following the launch in July, presales have commenced for Stage 4A at LA MONTAGNE in Wong Chuk Hang. Demolition of the existing building at 269 Queen's Road East is underway. And we're making good progress on several other projects in Taiwan and also in Quarry Bay. The graph in the top right-hand corner illustrates projected completions over the next few years, representing approximately 1.1 million square feet on an attributable basis. In Southeast Asia, we're continuing to explore opportunities focusing on the 4 key markets in Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore. And in the first quarter, as I mentioned, we've acquired our first project in Bangkok, a 40% interest in a prime site for a luxury residential development. Okay. And moving to hotels. I think it's fair to say after a few very challenging years, our hotel business has recovered in the first half of this year, which is very encouraging. Hotels in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland have benefited from the border reopening, and our 2 hotels in Miami continued to perform well. As announced last year, under the hotel management model, we have 2 new hotels under construction, one in Tokyo and one in Shenzhen and a number of exciting prospects in the pipeline to expand both The House Collective and the EAST brands in the region. So at this point, I'll hand over to Fanny to take us through the financial highlights as well as the latest updates on ESG and digital transformation.

Thank you, Tim. Good afternoon, all. Overall, we had good performance in the first half of 2023. Recurring underlying profit increased by 6% to $3.892 billion. This mainly reflected higher retail rental income from Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland. Our office -- our hotel businesses in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland recovered strongly following the lifting of COVID-19-related measures and the reopening of the border. Occupancy and room rates improved significantly. The hotels in the USA continued to perform well. The small underlying loss from property trading was primarily a result of sales and marketing expenses incurred for several residential trading properties, which were partly offset by profits from the sales of EIGHT STAR STREET. Total underlying profit, including the disposal gains from divestments, decreased by 6%. It's mainly due to the lower disposal gains from the sale of car parking space at Taikoo Shing in the first half of 2023. But we expect the profit of the sale of 654 units of car parking space to be recognized in the second half of this year. Moving on to the performance of our investment properties portfolio. Attributable gross rental income in the first half of 2023 was $7.676 billion, a 6% increase as compared to the first half of last year. This highlighted the benefit of our balanced portfolio, whereas the weaker performance of Hong Kong office was offset by the strong performance of the retail portfolio. Attributable gross rental income from Hong Kong office decreased by 2% to $2.933 billion. Against the backdrop of increased vacancy in the market and uncertain economic condition, performance of our Hong Kong office remained resilient with high occupancy. Hong Kong retail recorded a strong recovery since the reopening of the border. Attributable gross rental income increased by 19% to $1.324 billion. All the malls in Hong Kong reported significant growth in retail sales due to the lifting of all travel restrictions and COVID-19 measures as well as our investment in the marketing and loyalty initiatives. Sales have returned to pre-pandemic levels in some of our malls with higher turnover rent. For Chinese Mainland retail, attributable gross rental income increased by 13%. Disregarding the rental concessions and renminbi depreciation, the increase was 19%. Similar to Hong Kong, there was a strong recovery due to the lifting of all COVID-19-related measures since the beginning of this year. Footfall improved significantly, and retail sales strongly exceeded the pre-pandemic levels for many of our malls. There were also additional rental contributions from our incremental interest in Taikoo Li Chengdu. Performance for Chinese Mainland office was stable. Attributable gross rental income reduced by 5%. Disregarding the renminbi depreciation impact, there was an increase of 1%. Other category reported 11% growth in attributable rental income. This reflected solid performance in the Brickell City Centre retail in Miami and the recovery of the serviced apartments in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland. Key highlights on this page is our objective to deliver mid-single-digit annual growth in dividends. The first interim dividend per share in 2023 was $0.33, 3% increase from that of last year. Our investment properties valuation as at the end of June 2023 was $284.4 billion, increased by 5% from that at the end of 2022. The waterfall chart on the left shows the key changes in the investment properties value. A significant portion of the increase, $15.23 billion, as highlighted in the first green bar on the left, was due to the consolidation of investment properties of Taikoo Li Chengdu as it becomes our wholly owned subsidiary. Net additions of $1.735 billion were primarily due to the CapEx on Six PP and Taikoo Place redevelopment. There were fair value losses of $1.332 billion mainly from office investment properties in Hong Kong. There was no change in the capitalization rate for properties in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland. Due to the depreciation of renminbi, there were exchange losses of $2.288 billion in respect of the investment properties in the Chinese Mainland. Moving on to the net debt and gearing. For the first half of 2023, total net debt increased by $10.5 billion to $29.5 billion at the end of June. Table on the left shows the movement of the net debt. The key items include the cash payment for the acquisition of the remaining 35% of Taikoo Li Chengdu, $4.8 billion, and the consolidation of its net debt of $2.466 billion. Total CapEx on investment properties and development costs for trading properties amounted to $1.676 billion. Net cash outflow for joint ventures associated and other investments were $1.295 billion, including our investment in the joint venture for the Thailand residential trading project. Gearing ratio as at the end of June was 10.2%. Despite the significant increase from the end of 2022, the absolute gearing was still very low compared with the historical levels before 2018 when our active capital recycling program first started. Despite significant increase in interest rates, our weighted average cost of debt only increased slightly to 3.9% due to the higher proportion of the fixed rate debt in our portfolio. Overall, still very healthy balance sheet to support our investment plan. A few highlights on this slide. Maturity profile is very well spread over the next 5 years. There are not too many maturing debts for refinancing in 2024. Despite increase in debt, total cash and available committed and undrawn facilities maintained high at $12.497 billion. Fixed rate debt ratio was high at 60%, which is good under the current increasing interest rate environment. During the first half of 2023, we issued a few renminbi bonds and entered into a few renminbi loan facilities. Renminbi debt represented 16% of our debt portfolio. We have more appetite to increase renminbi debt to support our investment plan in the Chinese Mainland. As at the end of June 2023, total capital commitments were $24.875 billion, of which $9.613 billion were for Hong Kong and $15.235 billion were for the Chinese Mainland. Hong Kong commitment were mainly in -- with relation to CapEx for the redevelopment of Zung Fu and Wah Ha buildings, Six PP and Taikoo Place. Chinese Mainland capital commitments include CapEx for Taikoo Li Xi'an, INDIGO Phase 2 and Sanya project. These capital commitments will be spread over the next few years with majority to be spent in and beyond 2025. Capital recycling remains an important part of our strategy to fund our growth plan. This slide summarizes the disposal proceeds generated in the past few years. In total, so far, we have generated $46 billion from the capital recycling program, of which $1.8 billion is expected in 2023. We will now move on, and I will give you some quick updates on the ESG fund, which we have continued to make a substantial progress in the first half of this year. We continued to integrate sustainable development into every aspect of our business. And our efforts are being acknowledged by globally recognized indices and ratings. Just in June, we were honored to be included in the first edition of the S&P Sustainability Yearbook China as the only real estate company to make the top 1% S&P Global ESG score China for our leading ESG efforts. To drive cutting-edge sustainability innovation, since 2008, Swire Properties have been working with Tsinghua University through the joint research center for building energy efficiency and sustainability to develop and test new methods to increase energy efficiency and improve environmental performance of our portfolios. We just celebrated our 15 years of success with Tsinghua with our third partnership renewal ceremony held in April, announcing our new commitment of investing another CNY 15 million to fund research on energy saving and decarbonization technologies to combat climate change. On environment, we continue to accelerate our efforts in fighting climate change, ensuring we achieve deep decarbonization to advance to the net zero target by 2050. At our new development project at Taikoo Li Xi'an, we have introduced the concept of net zero design through various technological innovations. For example, shallow and deep [ type ] ground-source heat pump, capable of fulfilling 60% of the heating requirement during winter period. Integrated TV, energy storage, direct current, flexible power distribution system, what we call PEDF, which is estimated to save 2 million kilowatts for the retail portion. We also continue to roll out and pilot innovative low-carbon technologies and management practices across our existing portfolios. Since 2019, the rollout of the smart energy management platform across our global portfolio has already identified over 1.1 million kilowatts of electricity savings. Taikoo Li Sanlitun, Beijing was our first portfolio applying PEDF in the Chinese Mainland. The technology is estimated to bring about 10% carbon emission reduction compared to conventional power distribution system. On partners, the interest in sustainability from our tenants continues to grow, reflected through the sign-ups from our Green Performance Pledge program. Since its launch last year, GPP has achieved approximately 40% sign-up from our Hong Kong and Chinese Mainland office tenants, measured by occupied leasable floor area. We have performed energy audits for over 400,000 square feet of tenant space, identifying over 10% of energy saving potential for most of our tenants. We also installed digital water meters and retrofitted water faucets, reducing our tenants' water intensity by 22% in Q1 2023 compared to second half 2022. GPP also achieved a 33% waste diversion rate. The momentum doesn't stop here. In our GPP award ceremony in July, we also launched the GPP Academy, which is an all-new capacity building program featuring quarterly activities and workshops to enhance tenants' skills in sustainability and waste awareness for better performance. We also continue to introduce smart solutions to support tenants' data collection. For example, smart energy and water meters and smart waste mobile scale for driving improvement. Green financing remains our preferred financing strategy to support our transition to a low-carbon sustainable business. In the first half of 2023, sustainability linked loan facilities totaling $3.5 billion were secured, and green bonds through private placement of approximately $2.5 billion were issued. In July, we issued the first green dim sum public bonds of CNY 3.2 billion, which were very well received by the market and setting a benchmark as the largest ever corporate green dim sum public bonds issuance in Hong Kong, putting our green financing ratio to approximately 65% of the total bond and loan facilities. On governance, we are committed to maintain gender balance and representation on the Board. As at the end of June 2023, 38.5% of the Board positions are represented by women, a 7.7% increase from 2022. On digital, we have continued to invest in innovation, in line with our business priorities. To this end, we are making market-leading solutions to empower our tenants, enable our staff and engage with our customers. In the Chinese Mainland, we have increased our focus on construction management platforms and innovations to help us deliver our $100 billion investment plan effectively. While in Hong Kong, we upgraded our Taikoo Place tenant experience platform to build on our placemaking efforts. At the same time, we have continued our commitment to look forward at potential technology developments and disruptions through our new ventures fund. We have deployed more than 70% of our USD 50 million venture capital fund into 15 funds and companies to help us stay on the forefront of real estate-related technologies. Our latest investment include Suffolk Technologies venture fund and Cathay Capital's consumer co-creation fund. These investments in global construction technologies and Chinese consumer retail innovations will enable us to look ahead and future-proof our business with global partners. With that, I will pass it back to Tim.

Great. Many thanks, Fanny. This is the last slide, just to sort of summarize really a few final words on the outlook. In short, we expect the post-pandemic recovery to continue in the second half of this year. In Hong Kong, despite the overall weak market conditions, our office portfolio continues to enjoy high occupancy levels due to the flight to quality trend and in recognition of our successful placemaking efforts and our strong ESG performance. Sales in our malls will continue to improve as travel and tourism activity recovers. And at the same time, we are continuing to upgrade our trade mix and improve the overall experience for our shoppers, especially on the digital front. In the Chinese Mainland, we anticipate steady growth across all our shopping malls. And we are committed to increasing the footprint of our successful Taikoo Hui and Taikoo Li retail-led mixed-use developments in Tier 1 and emerging Tier 1 cities with a specific focus on the Greater Bay Area and Shanghai. On the trading front, we have a diverse portfolio of residential projects in Hong Kong, and we're taking an opportunistic approach to expanding our interest in Southeast Asia, in line with our plan to allocate HKD 20 billion to residential trading opportunities in our 3 core markets. So in summary, we have a balanced and diversified portfolio with strong fundamentals, supported by our active asset management and transformative placemaking strategy. And post-pandemic, we've been making good progress with our plan to invest HKD 100 billion in new projects over 10 years in our 3 core markets in order to deliver sustainable dividend growth. And we look forward to the continuation of a steady recovery. Thank you very much.

[Operator Instructions] We'll now take the first question. A gentleman on the third row to my left.

Yes. This is Mark Leung from UBS. I have about 2 questions. I think the first one is related to our statement that we are planning to develop a retail lead project in Pudong in Shanghai. So just wanted to check on management thoughts on the local market condition because I think there are lots of luxury malls in the pipeline in Shanghai. I think that's the first question. And the second question is, we also mentioned we are target to double the Mainland GFA by 2032. And besides from Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, any other cities or project we are working on?

Thank you, Mark. Well, look, I mean, in terms of Pudong, as you know, we -- in October 2021, we opened our first project in Pudong in Qiantan. And that Taikoo Li project has been our most successful project to date in terms of opening rate, in terms of the positioning and the percentage of luxury brands. And I think as that project has matured, we've seen very strong support from shoppers in Pudong who enjoy the Taikoo Li experience. So you've seen from the sales growth, from sales recovery in the last 6 months how that project has performed. And we still have confidence in the opportunity and the long-term prospects for our retail brand in Pudong. On the second question, I mean, you mentioned various cities. So we've announced 2 new projects, one in Xi'an, which will be a Taikoo Li style and a resort-led Taikoo Li-style development in Sanya. We continue to look for prospects in the Greater Bay Area. And we've -- I think we've communicated earlier our enthusiasm regarding a potential investment in Julong Wan in Liwan District in Guangzhou. And we continue to look for opportunities in Shenzhen. We prioritized various potential sites in [ Fujian ], but at this stage, we haven't confirmed anything, and the team is working hard on that particular project.

Now the next question, gentleman right here, second row.

Karl Choi from Bank of America. A couple of questions. First, some of your peers mentioned that the strong luxury sales momentum in Mainland China first half have seen some signs of softening of late. Just wondering what you're seeing recently? And second, for the Hong Kong office portfolio, the occupancy -- your occupancy has held up very well, but there's also still a lot of supply, and some landlords are pretty aggressive with CapEx subsidies and things like that. Any sort of outlook you can give in terms of the occupancy into next year? Any risk that it may have to drift much lower?

Thanks, Karl. Well, look, on the first one, I mean, I think on -- as I said earlier, in terms of luxury sales in the Chinese Mainland, I think in -- certainly for our experience in Taikoo Li and Taikoo Hui, we've seen a very strong recovery in retail sales, especially in luxury sales but also in lifestyle and F&B. And we see that trend continuing. I think what we've seen over the -- maybe over the summer period, there's been a greater opportunity for people to travel overseas. And with the sort of school holidays and other periods, there's been a slight softening in a couple of cities. But generally, the trend is positive. And we anticipate that, that will continue to improve as we approach the October national holiday. And certainly, that sentiment has been shared by the brands. In terms of Hong Kong office, I mean, you're right, there is -- in terms of new supply, I mean, not just new buildings, but also there is oversupply in the existing Hong Kong stock. That said, it needs to separate between the sort of grade B and the genuine grade A office stock. I think if you look out this year, and we're continuing to work hard to make sure we can maintain the high occupancy rates. We anticipate that rental levels sort of bottomed out, but there may be slight negative reversions in Pacific Place and in Taikoo Place. But the team are working very hard on increasing the occupancy rates in Two Taikoo Place, and we have several interesting prospects in the pipeline. And I mean, just to conclude, what I would say is that it's been interesting to see that in terms of inspection rates, inspection rates in Pacific Place are now at the same level as they were pre-pandemic. And I think that's an encouraging indicator of demand over the medium to long term.

Turning to the next question. Gentleman, white shirt.

Sam Wong from Jefferies. Two questions, if I may. First, just wanted to get a quick sense in terms of turnover rent percentage for your China retail portfolio. And secondly, on Hong Kong office, it looks like some of your peers are trying to be more aggressive in terms of cutting the spot rent. So I just want to get a sense how you will respond to a pricing competition on the office front.

Yes. Fanny, do you want to take the turnover rent?

I think turnover rent in our Chinese Mainland portfolio varies quite a lot depending on the shopping mall that you're talking about. So it's a rough range. It can be a low single-digit percentage on the turnover rent to around 30% or over 30% of the total rent for turnover rent.

Yes. Sam, I think on Hong Kong office, and we've sort of covered this. I think, yes, there is -- certainly, I think some of the -- some landlords will be aggressive about chasing higher occupancies. I think what we've seen is that, as I mentioned earlier, there is a genuine flight to quality. And I think what we've seen is occupiers and tenants looking for higher quality, better spec buildings. And I think the results of our long-term investment in placemaking and the results that we have been able to communicate in terms of the ESG credentials of our buildings is attracting new tenants. And that will stand us in good stead in a very competitive market.

Next question, gentleman in the blue.

It's Ken from Citi. Can I just follow up on what Karl mentioned on the China side? I want to go back to the Hong Kong side given that we also -- there's a lot of noise and news saying that May and June, the number is not good. Probably you already announced it, which is still quite good. But are we seeing that the momentum actually is potentially as some other peers are saying that already [ picked up ]? And are we seeing any month-on-month decline or expansion on your luxury sales that -- in Hong Kong? So this is the first one. Secondly, I also want to check on your -- I mean, of course, we don't know when it will be launched on the Queensway's auctions. But I guess you will be one of the interested party. So what kind of format is it that -- will it be a very small stake or anything that you will be potential target in terms of working with joint venture partner if you are going to build for that site?

Yes. Thanks, Ken. Well, I think as I said, I think in terms of sales in Hong Kong first half of this year, Pacific Place, for example, we've seen very strong growth. So over 60% growth relative to last year. And we've seen that demand for luxury brands being sustained. So notwithstanding the effect of inbound, outbound travel, we've seen a continued -- continuation of demand for luxury goods. And we'll see coming into September, as I said, into the October holiday in the Chinese Mainland how the mainland market performs through the third quarter. In terms of Queensway, we've just mentioned this before. I think, clearly, I mean, Queensway is adjacent to Pacific Place, and we've been monitoring that site closely for a number of years. Queensway site is in this year's government land sale program, but we don't have any more information at this time as to what the timing of that government land tender is. As to the structure, I mean, I think we'll look at various different options. But certainly, a joint venture is a possibility, and we'll be talking to the various potential partners about the Queensway site at the appropriate time.

We'll turn to the last question. If there's no further question, this concludes our analyst briefing today. Thank you very much for joining us.