The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited (45) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels' 2023 Interim Results presentation. My name is Aiden, General Manager, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations for the company. The result announcements were posted on the Stock Exchange website earlier this afternoon. Our presentation will begin by our senior management team followed by the Q&A session [Operator Instructions] Today, we are pleased to welcome the following speakers: Mr. Clement Kwok, Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Peter Borer, Chief Operating Officer; Ms. Shirley Lam, Group Director of Properties. We would now like to invite our CEO, Mr. Clement Kwok to begin the presentation.

Thanks, Aiden. Hi, everyone. Thank you very much for attending. It's great to see you all. And thank you for coming to our office. Actually, our presentation is quite long today but hopefully it will give you a lot of information. And of course, you will be then welcome to ask further questions after that. So we can start, Aiden? Right. So overview. Of course, it's not a surprise that we have seen a strong rebound, because don't forget a year ago, we were still suffering from a lot of COVID restrictions. Our memories tend to be quite short, but you might remember even a year ago, if you came back to Hong Kong, you are subject to quarantine. And so of course, all of that has changed quite a lot. And we have had that rebound. And in particular, the place where the COVID restrictions where the latest to be eased, was in Greater China. So that is where we've seen a good rebound since the reopening of the borders in China. However, we'll explain later that the business in Greater China is still not up to our normal levels, because the pace of recovery is still affected by geopolitical tensions, and actually, to some extent by the flight capacity at the airport. I will come back to that later. In the U.S., you remember there was a big recovery last year with a lot of revenge spending from people. It sort of stabilized, that's holding but not seeing the same rate of growth as we saw a year ago. Now with that business rebound, our EBITDA, and here I have to say we're taking the EBITDA before the pre-opening expenses. Now, you may remember once upon a time in accounting, you would capitalize your pre-opening expenses before the opening of a hotel. Your payroll -- you've already hired staff, that they've been trained before the opening, a lot of traveling expenses, people were sending into the project, all of that would had been capitalized. But the accounting rules don't allow that anymore. So now we have to expense the pre-opening. But of course, this is non-recurring in nature. So we're showing numbers, which strip out the pre-opening as well, although we show that pre-opening numbers. But I think the number to focus on is the number of EBITDA before pre-opening expenses and project expenses, which at HKD 498 million Hong Kong is actually an increase of 357% as compared to the same period last year. Of course, when you start from a lower number, the percentage becomes very high, but it is still 3.5x what it was a year ago. We still strike the warning that labor shortages still are effective, especially in Japan. Peter can talk more about that later if you wish. But the big news, of course, for this half year, is that we opened the Peninsula Istanbul. Now I have to say, we can talk about location, designs and everything else. But I can say to you that when I visited a few weeks ago, it was actually my first visit since the soft opening. Your knees go weak. It is an amazing property. The location you look over to the hotel, you have the gardens in front of the hotel, you have the swimming pool, you have the magnificent buildings, the rooms, the suites and so on. And it really I think, is already been recognized as being one of the best hotels in the world. It's a very special experience. So the only thing I can do is to ask you to come and visit, because words and pictures cannot really describe it. The Peninsula London, all of you, of course are aware that from a financial investment point of view an importance to the group. This is a huge thing for us. And again, it's no secret that we've suffered many time delays and cost overruns. But again, the big news is that we have started taking bookings as from the 12th of September. Now, that is still subject to some final testing and commissioning in the U.K. And of course, there's a little bit of risk because if something goes wrong, that may not happen, but we are really doing everything we can to then soft open that hotel on that date. And I think you're all aware of the location. It is truly unique location. Again, people who've been in to look at the hotel so far, they all say, "Wow, wow, wow, wow." And again, it's something we're looking forward to showing all of you. So, will receive your bookings after the meeting. The other thing to say in this summary is that, we did consider paying a dividend and we would like to pay a dividend as soon as it would be sensible to do so. We decided not to, for these interims. We'll review again at the year-end, because actually the underlying earnings are still not a big number. So that is the reason for that. If we go on to the table of the numbers. You will see that our consolidated revenue increased by 47% and a lot of that increased came from the hotels. And I already highlighted before that you have this EBITDA before pre-opening up by 357%. However, you can see the pre-opening and project expense are very expensive, HKD 136 million, that actually also reflects how expensive the payroll is in London. And we've had some further delays in London, and we're already building up the staff. So the cost of that exercise is, in fact, very high. I would also draw out the -- it's sort of a bit, not really highlighted here, increase in fair value of IPs, which are investment properties. These are the revaluation surpluses. And of course, you know that these can be just a bit fluctuating, they're noncash. But here, because our revaluation is HKD 222 million as compared to HKD 426 million a year ago, then our bottom line is actually a little bit worse than the first half of last year. But actually, our operating results are far better. So this is really a noncash property revaluation. I think all of you will understand that, that number can be higher or lower. And I do not think this is a reflection of our operating performance. But we find ourselves often having to explain to the market that we haven't really declined in our earnings. And therefore, actually I would also draw attention to the underlying profits. Although, it's not a big number, HKD 25 million, that is stripping out the pre-opening, the investments, property revaluations and so on. It's a positive number at HKD 25 million as compared to a year ago. The first half was minus HKD 254 million. So that's actually a big turnaround. If you break this down into divisions, I won't say too much about this. Because it's pretty obvious, hotels, as you would expect, big increase in revenue, increases in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo. And Tokyo has done very well in terms of revenue, the highest ever 6 months revenue. And so you have the EBITDA number there. Commercial properties, what I would say is that The Repulse Bay residential occupancy really suffered during COVID and was getting down towards 70%. As of now, we're back to about 85%. And actually, that's quite encouraging to see some recovery. Of course, there's still not huge numbers of expats coming back to Hong Kong. So these are some local moves, some expats coming back. But actually a very pleasing recovery. And actually pretty quickly because the borders only opened a few months ago and this type of business, it takes a while to pick up. Clubs and -- oh, sorry. The other thing about commercial property is, of course, a big increase in revenue at The Peak Tower, which is not surprising because the Peak Tram was closed a year ago. And so now you have a much better improvement. In fact, we were up at The Peak Tower yesterday and it was quite crowded up there. And in line with that, under clubs and services, you have the increase in the Peak Tram. Now that's a big increase as well. And actually interestingly, we're seeing numbers which are at the level of or in some cases, above pre-COVID. So that is interesting too. Clubs and services, big factor, Mooncakes sales. The season is underway. It's in line with expectations and it's picking up. Cash flow. Basically, what we pictured is that we earn operating cash flows, we use those cash flows to pay for the needed CapEx on our existing properties and usually, there is a decent surplus after we have paid for the CapEx of existing properties, which in this case is about HKD 237 million balance for the first half. But then our interest burden has been increasing because of the new projects. And also, you have a new project spend in London and Istanbul. So overall, our net outflow was HKD 1.4 billion, which is in line with our plan. But as we'll talk about it later, if we go to the next page, our gearing has gone up a little bit more. It's gone up to 28% net debt to total assets. And really we don't want that number to get much higher. But we do have the proceeds coming from the sales of the London residential apartments, which will be released when we can complete. Because you can't release until you complete and get all the certificates signed off. So that number will come down when you start releasing the sale proceeds. But in the meantime, our liquidity HKD 3.2 billion that covers -- actually we're not in a cash negative operating situation. But just any other unexpected needs, we have got some cover for that. The interest rate. Average gross interest rate is 4%, 185 basis points increase compared to December. Of course, that's not a surprise given the interest rate increase environment. But we have hedged quite a bit, we still have 46% hedged in fixed rate. So we're managing it reasonably well. And of course, remember when the proceeds coming from London, actually we'll be paying off unhedged borrowings, so that hedging percentage will go up. Of course, Aiden really wants me to tell everybody that he's signed lots of green and sustainable linked loans, HKD 3.9 billion financing, and we have 57% of our committed facilities are either green or sustainability loans. So that is a snapshot of the financial side and will now go through operations with Peter and Shirley.

Thank you, Clement. Good afternoon, ladies and gentleman. Overall, our hotel performance in the first half of '23 was generally pleasing and reflecting emerging recovery from the pandemic. With Mainland China's border reopened in March, Peninsula Hong Kong experienced a strong rebound. Revenue increased by 72%, RevPAR went up by over 300%. However, the long-haul markets from the United States and Europe are recovering more slowly than expected due to limited flight capacity, high cost of air fares and continued travel advisories. Retail business is seeing a strong pickup and queues outside luxury retail outlets, following the return of visitors from Mainland China. Peninsula Arcade is 90% occupied. The China markets also recovered swiftly after leaving -- after lifting of COVID-19 restrictions. The Peninsula Shanghai's revenue jumped by 98% with RevPAR more than tripled. During the first half, the majority of guests remained from the domestic market, but overseas business travel is coming back slowly, particularly at the C-suite level and in the luxury brand sector. You're seeing very high level overseas delegations booked for the summer of 2023. Peninsula Beijing also had a strong recovery. This revenue increased by 84% and RevPAR almost 300%. However, given geopolitical concerns and limited fly capacity, there were still very few international leisure travelers coming to Beijing. In the retail outlets, business was good. The Peninsula Arcade was 99% occupied. Elsewhere in Asia, The Peninsula Tokyo delivered a very strong first half of the year results. Its rates, occupancy and RevPAR exceeding expectations due to the return of international business from the United States, the U.K., and also Hong Kong. During Sakura season in April, the hotel achieved the highest monthly revenue since its opening. Peninsula Manila is seeing a recovery, satisfactory improvement in revenue and rates. Peninsula Bangkok's growth was good, but due to the competition in the luxury hotel market, as it has been very intense. And also there's a large oversupply along the river. In the United States, as the initial post pandemic recovery lesson, hotel performance was largely stable. The Peninsula New York reported very strong average rates with excellent business from corporate sector. In January of 2024, we will commence a major refurbishment of the lobby, reception areas, guestrooms, public areas, our very popular rooftop bar, and we hope to complete by the September of 2024. I'm happy to show you a few pictures. This shows the renovated entry hall of the hotel, which takes on a much lighter tone. that leads to the reception, which we feel this new look will give it slightly more contemporary, but still timeless look. This is one of the guest rooms that we've mocked up in New York and it has taken on a much lighter tone as well and has much more space in the middle. And last photo is the rooftop bar, which right now is in a very heavily decorated environment to take on sort of a look of a loft of Lower Manhattan. Coming to Chicago, the hotel recorded a stable first half of 2023 compared to the previous year, although average rates declined slightly. At the same time, costs increased due to wage inflation and the ongoing energy issues. The Peninsula Beverly Hills experienced the stable performance for the first half of '23 with improved average rates year-on-year although occupancy declined slightly. International business has not yet rebound to pre-COVID levels, although business travel has returned to some extent. This property has traditionally received a significant amount of business from the film and entertainment industries and unfortunately, the writers' strike has affected many major events and conferences due to production of movies being on hold. In Europe, The Peninsula Paris welcomed a high number of business and leisure travelers from the U.S. and Middle East. As well as domestic guests, contributing to the highest occupancy and best half yearly revenue since the hotel opened in 2014. I'm delighted to introduce our latest hotel, The Peninsula Istanbul. The hotel had a soft opening on the 14th of February, unfortunately, following the tragic earthquake in the south of the country. We are confident that this project will be delivered within budget. It has already received significant positive media coverage and received an accolade from Travel + Leisure as one of the best new 100 worth hotels in the world. As of 30th of June, we've opened 135 guest rooms, and we expect the full inventory 177 rooms be completed by the end of July. Although, the general market sentiment is still weak, we're receiving strong room rates and we expect this positive trend will continue for the rest of the year. I'll share with you some photos. Building is showing the lobby, which has a fascinating history as the former Karakoy cruise terminal, has carefully transformed into a Peninsula lobby. The original Bauhaus architecture and design have been preserved with modern touches introduced by Turkish interior designer, Zeynep Fadillioglu. Beyond these glass windows are the views of the Bosphorus and an outdoor terrace where guests can enjoy a Peninsula afternoon tea. We have a 177 rooms with unique heritage design features with Turkish artwork and luxurious Turkish fabrics. Combined to this Peninsula modern in-room technology and best of all, fantastic views of the Bosphorus. Each room has features of Peninsula signature separate glass paneled dressing room. And all bathrooms have been beautifully crafted in Marmara marble. It's indoor pool, the Peninsula spa, the design of which was inspired by the Roman and Ottoman baths. Our spas features also a Turkish hammam for treatments. The hotel is a beautifully outdoor garden terrace, area with comprehensive landscape, an infinity pool, banquet plaza and one of the largest ballrooms in the city that caters for up to 1,300 guests. Again, with magnificent views of the Bosphorus. Gallada restaurant helmed by renowned 2-star Michelin chef, Fatih Tutak opened in July and is already receiving positive reviews. It is Istanbul's first restaurant serving Asian and Turk cuisine. Restaurant has been designed with luxurious interiors, and again, has stunning views of the Bosphorus from its outdoor terrace. And on to London. The project and operations team have been working extremely hard to deliver this hotel by September this year. A number of guest rooms and floors, the lobby, the Chinese restaurant and most of the back-of-house areas are now ready for occupation and operations subject to final testing and commissioning. We have opened our booking channels for the 12th of September and plan a soft opening on that date. We will start to hand over some of the residential apartments upon the hotel's soft opening. We expect the hotel to be fully completed by the end of 2023, and most of the apartments we delivered by then. We also expect to hold the project cost of the revised budget of HKD 1.020 billion approved by the Board in October 2022, although this amount will depend on the final account settlements, the contractors and consultants. The hotel was designed by British-based Architect Hopkins, an architect and designer of Interiors, Peter Marino. We aim to create a stately grand hotel with exterior would reflect the grandeur of the Belgravia neighborhood. We wanted a hotel full of light and air to bring the inside in. And you can see the spacious high ceilings and beautiful light in this photo, which is quite rare in London. The guestrooms are among the largest in London and features stunning floor-to-ceiling windows. Many rooms have views over Buckingham Palace Gardens and the Wellington Arch. All guestrooms are appointed with bespoke furniture, textiles and fittings that exemplify the finest of British craftsmanship. The hotel features luxurious bathrooms, which are all kept in Honey Onyx. And of course, we have the traditional Mahogany panel dressing rooms. We're also delighted to introduce Cantonese fine dining with our Canton Blue restaurant. The designed by Henry Leung from Hong Kong invokes the shared heritage of transcontinental sea trade between China and Britain, known as the maritime Silk Road. Numerous design elements take inspiration from the Keying junk, a trade ship that connected the 2 countries during the mid-19th century, including displays of Cantonese porcelain, the ship carried from East to West. Next, I'm going to talk to you about clubs and services. The launching golf club was slightly impacted by the increment weather in California, which affected the usually strong driving market and banqueting. We are preparing to host The Quail: A Motorsports Gathering in August this month, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary and is considered one of the world's leading concours events for motoring aficionados. This event brings significant sponsorship revenue. Revenue at Peninsula Merchandising dropped slightly by 10% due to the timing of Mooncake sales which will be reflected in the second half of this year. Following the resumption of cross-border travel, our boutique at the Hong Kong International Airport, which was closed since March, 2020 has reopened in December, 2022. Business performance so far has been pleasing. Outside of Hong Kong, we've seen continued growth in our boutique stores and online businesses in China and Japan. Given the growth potential, we are planning to open boutiques in China, including a new flagship store in Xintiandi and in Tokyo. I will now hand over to Shirley to talk to you about our commercial. Thank you.

Thank you, Peter. The Repulse Bay Complex enjoy a positive result in the first half of '23. Banqueting revenue was strong following the easing of the COVID-19 restriction. Residential revenue and occupancy improved at 101 and 109 Repulse Bay following a slight refurbishment of apartments. We are pleased to see the recovery, and we are cautiously optimistic about the second half of '23. Given the positive leasing renewal in the summer, our long-term outlook remains positive. We are now planning an upgrade of The Repulse Bay Retail Arcade in order to offer unique and enhanced facility to the guest. St. John's Building had a great flat growth and revenue and was 90% occupied as of first half of '23. The Landmark Vietnam report improvement in both office and residential occupancy. Overall revenue was up by 9% in local currency. 21 avenue Kleber had a double-digit growth in revenue, both the office and retail space are fully let. The Peak Tower recorded satisfactory first half results after the Mainland borders reopened. We had a variety of promotions and business strategy to attract more visitors to the peak. In particular, the combo sales of the Sky Terrace and the Peak Tram tickets was successful and a number of visitors to the Sky tariffs improved significantly as compared to last year. We are undertaking a refurbishment of Peak Tower to include new dining outlets for us and exciting retail offerings. We expect to renovate the property in the coming 1 to 2 years. The new Peak Tram was launched last year in August. Following a major upgrade to the lower and upper terminal, the new tram car can carry 210 passengers compared to 120 previously. It has been very well received by the local and overseas visitors. Since the border reopened, business has been robust with recorded [indiscernible] achieved during the Golden holiday in May. Revenue jumped to HKD 85 million this year as compared to HKD 3 million last year. In the new terminal, we have installed some new features. The photo shows a public artwork created by Australian artist, Lindy Lee, known as the Eyes of Infinity. A new historical gallery and a video displays has been introduced as well as a stunning audio visual display, which shown the nature environment of the peak to the visitors. I will now hand back to Clement.

Thanks, Shirley. The final slide is on outlook, which is always a bit difficult to predict. But we'd just like to make a few points. We are seeing a favorable outlook in Greater China. Because, for instance, at The Peninsula Hong Kong, whilst we've seen improvements, it is still well below the normal levels that we saw prior to the protest in COVID. And we've spoken before that we are seeing recovery in Hong Kong. But actually, the segment that is the slowest to come back is the long-haul high-end leisure business from the U.S. and Europe. And of course, that's partly affected by the geopolitical situation. But at some stage, we are going to see that there will be a return. By the way, I was asked a question about that at the press conference. And I said, "Well, over the years, Peter and I have seen many changes in the demographics of our customer mix in Hong Kong." Over 20 years ago, the biggest customer segment were the Japanese. And then you see some changes over time. So of course, we are seeing some new trends as well. We, of course, would like to welcome back the high-end business from the U.S. and Europe. But at the same time, we have to develop new markets as well. So we're doing quite a lot of work in terms of development of business in China, but also in other markets in Southeast Asia, Middle East, India, even Africa. So we have to manage a changing demographic customer mix all the time. The new hotels in Istanbul are London are truly spectacular that will enhance our brand presence. But as you know, it will take a little bit of time for us to build up the earnings and the business. That always happens with a new hotel. It takes time before you really establish all the booking channels and people book and so on. And so that is one that we are watching, but we're very positive that with the products that we have got that we will be seeing the levels of earnings that we wish to see. On the commercial property side, we're already seeing that the Peak Tram is doing very well. And we -- even without the renovation, we're seeing some improvement at the Peak Tower. And when we do the renovation, we hope that we'll further improve. Residential occupancy, I've already mentioned, is recovering, and that is something we're paying attention to. So of course, our big capital expenditure is still for London, but we're beginning to put some money into some of our existing properties in order to enhance them. And those include -- they've all been mentioned, the renovations of The Peninsula New York, the Peak Tower and The Repulse Bay Arcade. I would also mention that we have been putting a lot of investment into the expansion of our merchandising business in China. We are going to be opening a flagship boutique at Xintiandi in Shanghai, and we are basically investing in growing the China business. Japan, I think we're also doing some things there, too. So we certainly haven't fully recovered since COVID. But I think we've weathered this period pretty well. I think our balance sheet is still solid. We're managing our operating costs. We're maintaining enough liquidity, and we hope that this improvement will continue. Okay? So thank you. That was our presentation. And of course, we would be delighted to take any questions that you may have.

Yes, we will now open up for questions. I would first share a question through webcast. How is Peninsula Hong Kong business being affected by other competitors in Hong Kong?

What I would say is that The Peninsula Hong Kong occupies a very special place in people's hearts. And it has a long reputation and it's survived through a lot of competition over the years. Because of the quality of the product, actually, our room rate is still very competitive, very high. But one of the key segments of our business has traditionally been very, very high-end long-haul leisure business travel that I had mentioned. You can imagine, let's say, when a wealthy American or European family decides to make a big grand trip to Asia, Peninsula Hong Kong is a big choice for them. And that sort of segment isn't so much there. So we are seeing that some of our traditional segments are a bit weak. It's no secret that, for instance, there's more business on Hong Kong Island because more of the financial services people are coming back for business earlier. So we are seeing competition. And Rosewood has introduced a new product. So they're bringing some businesses going to them as well. But overall, I think we feel that these various markets will recover, and we remain competitive and our room rate is certainly at a healthy level. Peter?

Yes. I think we've taken this period of rebuild to really position ourselves at the very top end of the market in terms of rate. And as of last month we're the rate leader in Hong Kong. And to me, that's absolutely where the Peninsula needs to be. So that maybe gives us a little dent in occupancy, but I'm very confident that the second part of the year, which traditionally is the better part for Hong Kong that will catch up.

Second question on web. We've heard that you will spend money on Peninsula New York and Peak Tower. And how about Peninsula Yangon, what's the update on that?

Well, can I just say for Peninsula New York and The Peak Tower and Repulse Bay Arcade, I don't think we've announced the budgets for those projects yet. But it won't surprise you that amount of spend are relatively small compared to what we spent in London. So we're talking of a few hundred million dollars here and there, which is, of course, important, but not at the scale of capital commitment that we have been seeing in the past few years. So I would make that point. Peninsula Yangon, the situation remains that the project is on hold. We've already finished 2/3, 70% of the project. And so certainly, it is worth keeping it. Our land grant is still valid, and we're paying some money to just maintain the site. We are in discussions with our local partner. The local partner is actually seeing quite good demand domestically in terms of properties, local properties being sold and so on. And the idea is that we'll certainly look at the appropriate time to finish this hotel, and they've been looking at completing the building. And then we'll have to see what the future outlook looks like. So one of the reporters at the press conference asked me, "Well, what will be the factor that would determine when and if you go ahead?" And I just simply said, "Economics." Yes, that's what we'll look at.

Third question. In terms of profitability of Peninsula Istanbul since soft opening are we satisfied with the profitability so far?

Well you have to remember that before the soft opening we had the earthquake in Turkey and that really significantly affected the market. So the first few months, of course, the financial performance is not being good. I think the important thing at the moment is to establish the reputation of the hotel which is doing very well. The room rates have been established at the high level. What we are now challenged with is building the occupancy from the low base because we are affected by the earthquake and people to come and get to know the property better. So I would say that the performance so far is clearly not the performance that we're looking for once the hotel gets warmed up as it were up and running, but we're working towards that.

We've got one more question from web. With Peninsula London opening, is our expectation of profitability in good shape in conjunction of all the cost and inflation happening in London?

Well, the investment in London is a big one. There's no doubt about that. You've seen the sort of numbers. Part of that investment will be allocated towards the residences. And under the accounting requirements nowadays, when those apartments get sold, we'll be booking some income or some gain from the sale of the apartments. And that leaves the hotel, which still has a rather high depreciation and high interest. And our challenge will be to cover the depreciation and interest from the earnings of the hotel that we need to build up over time. But the final accounting between the hotel and the residences has not been finalized. And so we can comment on that further when I think we see what the capitalization will be of the assets. Those were the web questions. Any physical questions? We've answered everything already?

I know that the Istanbul projects up and running, London is going to open soon. So what is your next expansion target in terms of location?

We've really have not decided. Actually, in terms of global top cities, there are no really obvious ones. We're already in New York, Tokyo, Beijing, Paris, London and so on. So I think in future, it would depend on opportunity. From time to time, we've also thought about whether we should go into resorts and all of this. However, the bottom line is that if you look at our financial commitments now, the priority is actually to get London and Istanbul well settled, just finalized the accounts, build up the earnings base. And as mentioned, we are actually putting some investment into the existing properties, New York, the Peak Tower and Repulse Bay. So there's no rush to go and increase our commitment. And actually, for us, it's always very important to make sure you invest enough in existing properties. And actually, Pizza does have a list for me of things that will need to be addressed in the existing properties as well. So we have to balance that all the time. We're not people who are just trying to plant as many flags on the earth as possible. Well, if that was the measure of our success, it would be a complete failure, wouldn't we? Because we have so few flags. But our mission is really to build the best, have a small number of the best and keep them the best. And I think that's how we look at things. You're all so satisfied with our answers that there are no more questions? All right. Thanks very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you.