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

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to The Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels 2024 Annual Results Presentation. My name is Aiden, General Manager, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations. Our 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. Benjamin Vuchot, Chief Executive Officer; Ms. Christobelle Liao, Chief Corporate and Governance Officer; Mr. Keith Robertson, Chief Financial Officer. We would now like to invite our CEO, Benjamin, to begin the presentation.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Benjamin Vuchot, and it's a pleasure to be hosting this session with you this afternoon. As you may know, I've started my CEO role just a month ago, and so I will, for this afternoon, will begin with highlighting the key messages with regards to our 2024 annual results and our priorities. First, our operational results reflect an emerging recovery from the difficult years of the pandemic, but we still have some way to go to achieve growth. Given the underlying loss of HKD 176 million incurred by the company, no final dividend for the year of 2024 is proposed. We reported a net loss for the year, which reflected a number of factors, mostly related to the depreciation attributed to The Peninsula London project, an increase in net financing charges related also to The Peninsula London and a revaluation loss of the group's investment properties for 2024. Our priority for the short to medium term is to stabilize the financial results of our new hotels, reduce our borrowings, grow our revenue and profitability to then be well placed for growth. Long term, we aim to preserve the unique culture of the brand and create value for our shareholders. Our Chief Financial Officer, Keith, will explain the financial results in detail shortly. Over to you, Keith.

Thank you, Benjamin. Good afternoon, everybody. I think most of you probably know me by now. So it gives me a pleasure to take you through the 2024 financial results. All the figures you'll see are presented in Hong Kong dollars, millions or billions, unless otherwise stated. In 2024, the group continued an emerging recovery and reported significant improvement in revenue of 18% to HKD 6.8 billion. This is excluding The Peninsula London Residences sales proceeds. During 2024, the sales of a total of 7 luxury residences in London were completed, generating total proceeds of HKD 3.5 billion. Including the sales proceeds, total group revenue in 2024 amounted to HKD 10.3 billion. Our EBITDA increased by 32% to approximately HKD 1.4 billion. Excluding The Peninsula London Residence sales proceeds, we reported a positive net operating cash flow of HKD 523 million. Including The Peninsula London Residences sales proceeds, net operating cash flow would increase to HKD 4 billion. The group had a HKD 2.8 billion of unused facilities and a net debt to total asset ratio of 23%, which was down by 3% compared to the prior year as we used the sales proceeds of the London Residences for loan repayment. As at the 31st of December '24, the group had a credit rating of A from Japan Credit Rating Agency Limited for long-term foreign currency and local currency denominated debts. With regards to our project updates, we finished a comprehensive interior design refurbishment of The Peninsula New York in September 2024, and the project was completed on time and within budget. Next, I'll walk you through the financials of the hotels, the commercial properties, the Peak Tram, retail and others. With regard to the hotel, the group's consolidated hotel revenue in 2024 increased by 19% to HKD 5 billion, mainly driven by the full year operations of The Peninsula London and strong revenue growth of The Peninsula Tokyo, which benefited from the robust tourism business in Japan. These increases were partially offset by the loss of revenue during The Peninsula New York's renovation from January to September 2024. Rooms revenue increased by 29%, and F&B revenue increased by 11%. Our overall hotel consolidated EBITDA increased by HKD 62 million year-on-year, which reflects an emerging recovery from the difficult years of the pandemic. Commercial properties, revenue increased by 40% to HKD 4.3 billion, largely driven by the sales of the 7 Peninsula Residences in London. Excluding those sales, revenue growth is healthy at 9% due to improved occupancy at The Repulse Bay and a higher number of visitors to the Sky Terrace. Regarding office properties, rental income remained stable. In the Peak Tram, retail and others, in 2024, we had a 17% growth, following the significant upgrade project, which was completed in 2022, the Peak Tram has performed exceptionally well and has been well received by the Hong Kong people and overseas visitors alike. Visitor numbers have exceeded pre-pandemic numbers in 2024, and revenue of the Peak Tram itself increased by over 40% year-on-year. Revenue at Peninsula Merchandising increased compared to the previous year, although our business was affected by a softer retail market in Hong Kong and in Mainland China. We are working on improving profitability of this business. To the profit or loss summary, as mentioned earlier, total revenue increased by 27% to HKD 10.3 billion, largely driven by the sale of the 7 residences in London. EBITDA also increased accordingly by 32% to HKD 1.4 billion. We had a loss of HKD 943 million attributable to shareholders as compared to a profit of HKD 146 million last year. Several key drivers of the loss are the following: firstly, the closure of The Peninsula New York due to its renovation and the newly opened Peninsula Hotels in London and Istanbul, which still require time to ramp up to a stabilized level of operations. Secondly, an increase in depreciation of HKD 166 million, mainly attributed to The Peninsula London, which opened in September '23. Thirdly, an increase in net financing charges of HKD 461 million as the group is no longer capitalizing interest on borrowings relating to The Peninsula London project following the opening of the hotel as well as marginally higher interest rates. Lastly, a revaluation loss of investment properties of HKD 569 million, together with an impairment provision of The Peninsula Yangon of HKD 158 million. Excluding nonrecurring items such as a decrease in the fair value of investment properties, the impairment provision, the group reported an underlying loss of HKD 176 million. Finally, I'll take you through the cash flow summary. Excluding the proceeds from the sales of The Peninsula London Residences, net cash generated from operations for the year amounted to HKD 523 million after taking into account changes in working capital, tax payments, normal CapEx, excluding projects and lease payments. Including The Peninsula London Residences sales proceeds, net cash generated from operations was HKD 4 billion. During the year, CapEx on hotel projects was HKD 937 million, of which HKD 648 million was spent on The Peninsula London and The Peninsula Istanbul with HKD 289 million spent on The Peninsula New York renovation. Preopening and project expenses reduced significantly to HKD 79 million following the 2 hotel openings in 2023. Net interest paid totaled HKD 685 million. The cash inflow before financing for the year significantly increased to HKD 2.2 billion versus a net cash outflow in 2023. And with regards to the capital structure and the financial position summary, we have credit metrics of HKD 2.8 billion of available security. And we have 23% net debt to total assets ratio, and we have HKD 2.8 billion of financing arranged in 2024 alone. We have significant net debt reduction by a total of HKD 2.5 billion. And I think that concludes the updated financial report. I'll hand you back to Benjamin, who will take you through the hotel highlights.

Thank you, Keith. For the hotel highlights, I'd like to walk you through region by region, and we will start with Europe. It was a busy year for our properties in Europe, and I propose to focus particularly on our 2 new hotels, The Peninsula London and The Peninsula Istanbul. To start off with The Peninsula London project, one of the highlights of our year for HSH was a grand opening celebration on the 18th of June 2024, which was attended by more than 2,500 VIP guests and celebrities. The Peninsula London continues to attract positive reviews and is gaining momentum month by month. Food and beverage was strong, and we were delighted that the fine dining restaurants, Brooklands was bestowed with 2 Michelin Stars in January 2024 and retained this in 2025. We are in the process of preparing and agreeing final accounts with our trade contractors and consultants, which will include finalization of program delay costs. Moving on to The Peninsula Istanbul. The momentum has been satisfactory and continues to gather pace, achieving RevPAR #3 in the city for the full year of 2024. Geopolitical tensions in the region affected overseas visitors in the first quarter, but this stabilized from the second quarter onwards, and U.S. visitors started to return to this region. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Russia and U.K. markets were also strong. The average room rate has reported a significant drop of 22% year-on-year due to a revised room rate strategy focusing on driving occupancy and in line with our competitive set. Speaking of food and beverage, again, the performance has been also very strong, particularly in the lobby and banqueting as the hotel offers one of the largest al fresco ballrooms in the city, which has become popular for weddings and large corporate events. Now moving to the U.S. Our big story of the year was the renovation at The Peninsula New York. We completed a significant renovation in New York, which resulted in the transformations of the guest rooms, the lobby, the rooftop bar, which has now been renamed as Pen Top, as well as the public areas. This renovation started in phases in January 2024 and was completed in September 2024, in time for the UN General Assembly, which was a significant source of business for the hotel. This renovation negatively affected revenue for the period under renovation. However, the room rates and RevPAR improved once the new room product became available and received very positive reviews from guests and media. I would like to share some photos of the renovation, starting with the lobby, the arrival area for our guests, the grand entrance, which features a magnificent chandelier overlooking the dramatic lobby, which has the sweeping marble double staircase. Next is the Palm Court, the hotel's central atrium featuring a newly commissioned triptych by contemporary artist, Ricardo Mazal, inspired by nature. Moving to the grand suite bedroom. This bedroom, which overlooks Fifth Avenue and Central Park, features Peninsula's proprietary in-room technology. Another suite, this one is the grand suite living room, which includes an elegantly appointed living room with decorative fireplace and a 65-inch LED television. Also in the grand suite, the dining room, which features a separate dining room that seats 8 people with a butler's pantry. The Pen Top is a highlight of this renovation. This is the outlet that was formerly known as Salon de Ning and has now -- is now one of New York's first rooftop bars. Here are some pictures of the newly operable louverable roof that allows for indoor and outdoor year-round dining. And finally, to Asia. We would like to share a happy Hong Kong story, and starting with The Peninsula Hong Kong, which experienced positive results, especially in the fourth quarter. The RevPAR increased by 10% compared to the same period in 2023. We were pleased to see a gradual improvement in the overall tourist sentiment in Hong Kong and visitors returning from the traditionally strong long-haul markets from U.S. and Europe. The city's food and beverage industry continued to be negatively impacted by a trend of Hong Kong residents traveling to the neighboring city of Shenzhen to experience alternative dining options and hotel stays, although the outlook for 2025 is better. On the leasing side, The Peninsula Office Tower was 86% occupied in 2024, and the immediate outlook is stable. Finally, The Peninsula Arcade occupancy was over 90%, despite a softer retail market across the city. Our anchor luxury retail outlets have experienced queues outside their boutiques. Moving now to Japan at The Peninsula Tokyo. This is also another success story of the year. The Peninsula Tokyo performed well with rates, occupancy and RevPAR achieving significant growth, returning to pre-pandemic results. This was driven by the robust international business from U.S., U.K. and Hong Kong. Occupancy and average room rates increased by 11%. On food and beverage, the revenue improved compared to the previous year, with banquet experiencing strong demand. The arcade business was robust, and we introduced one of the world's largest sports car brand as a new tenant on the ground level of the hotel. And now Christobelle, our Chief Corporate and Governance Officer, will share the operating performance of commercial properties and as well as the Peak Tram, retail and others, followed by corporate responsibility and sustainability update. Over to you, Christobelle.

Thank you. And welcome all of you to joining our analyst presentation. I will first begin with the Repulse Bay complex, which is our largest revenue contributor amongst all of our commercial properties. The property enjoyed a positive momentum and positive leasing environment compared to the previous year. Residential revenue and occupancy improved at 101 Repulse Bay and de Ricou, following a minor refurbishment of 30 apartments, and we're pleased to see demand returning from local moves as well as expats who are returning or moving to Hong Kong. The Repulse Bay Arcade reported stable occupancy and revenue. We are undertaking some renovation of the arcade in order to offer enhanced facilities to guests, and this will complete by the end of the year. And then on to The Peak Tower, which reported strong performance in 2024. Occupancy at The Peak Tower improved, and revenue increased by 20% year-on-year. We are exploring a variety of new dining and retail options to enhance The Peak Tower's appeal as a destination. We continue to implement a variety of promotions and business strategies to entice more visitors to The Peak. Visitors to Sky Terrace 428 improved significantly compared to the previously -- previous year due to the successful sales of combo tickets with the Peak Tram. And on to the Peak Tram, retail and others. Following the major upgrade project that was completed in 2022, business has been very strong. In 2024, patronage returned to pre-pandemic levels with Peak Tram operating at full capacity on certain days, and revenue increased by more than 40% year-on-year. On Peninsula Merchandising, revenue at Peninsula Merchandising increased by 12% compared to the previous year, although our business was affected by softer retail market in Hong Kong and Mainland China. We reported continued growth in our boutique stores in Japan as well as our online businesses, and we have strategically changed our commerce -- e-commerce provider in Mainland China to drive online traffic. This division is renowned for its signature moon cakes, and our mid-autumn sales were satisfactory. Business is progressing well, and we continue to expand in several markets, including the Mainland China. We are preparing to launch new categories of products, including lifestyle products to develop a broader range of luxury giving. These includes chocolate, tea, nonalcoholic beverages and other delicacies with the intention of introducing our brand to new markets. We've also just completed the refurbishment of the Peninsula Boutique in Hong Kong International Airport, which will open later this week. Next, I'm going to share some updates on corporate responsibility and sustainability. The global context of sustainability is increasingly complex, but we remain committed to our Sustainable Luxury Vision 2030 goals, which we genuinely believe will bring positive impact to the planet as well as to people and the communities around us. The Peninsula London and The Peninsula Istanbul are great representations of sustainable luxury as they have officially received BREEAM Excellent this year and will be joining the rest of the Peninsula hotels in achieving EarthCheck certification. In 2024, we conducted a comprehensive review of our assets to identify further efficiency projects and renewable energy adaptation opportunities. Some of these initiatives can optimize the efficiency of our buildings while enhancing guest comfort. As for the next step, we will work on the company's longer-term capital expenditure planning to assess these projects. On a similar topic, we have been working with banks on sustainability linked loans now totaling $10 billion. We hope to continue generating interest rate savings that could support us on this low-carbon journey. As a group, we have achieved a low voluntary turnover rate of 16.2%, which is a testament to all the employee benefits and welfare -- wellness programs that ensure our staff are well taken care of. We continue to support local communities with more staff volunteering. It's very sad to see the impact of the L.A. wildfire, and we immediately activated our Hope for L.A. campaign to raise funds to support the impacted communities in early 2025. We recognize that more frequent and unusual climate events may impact our local communities and our assets, and we continue to assess climate change risk to ensure we are prepared for these future changes. More initiatives can be found in our online CRS report and website. Benjamin will then now discuss our group's outlook.

Thank you, Christobelle. So to summarize the outlook, I think it's fair to say we are cautiously optimistic. In the current business climate, the outlook for our various businesses is generally stable, and we are cautiously optimistic for the year ahead. In Hong Kong, in particular, the long-haul market for leisure travelers is improving, and we are seeing positive numbers of visitors returning from Southeast Asia and the Middle East. However, geopolitical tensions remain a general concern. As we saw in 2024, we've experienced good results with the Peak Tram. We believe this will continue as a strong business environment and is very attractive experience for visitors. We are pleased to see strong demand returning for the residential apartments at The Repulse Bay from both the local and expatriate markets, and we expect this to continue as leasing contracts are renewed after the pandemic. At The Peninsula Hong Kong, we are expecting a stronger year as visitors return for major events, including Art Basel in March, the Rugby 7s for those of you who attended, and we are very excited about this new pace that we're seeing in the city. In the Asian hotels, once again, we are cautiously optimistic. We expect to see continued growth in Japan, where there is high demand for exclusivity and premium services and accommodation. Beijing and Shanghai have a positive outlook, with good business expected from the domestic market and stronger international business returning as China expands its visit-free policy to increasing numbers of countries. Rates remain high in the U.S., and the outlook is stable, with The Peninsula New York expecting good growth after the renovation. The new Peninsula London and Peninsula Istanbul hotels are truly spectacular and together with The Peninsula Paris have significantly enhanced our brand presence in Europe. On the commercial property side, we will continue to invest in our existing assets and uplift our offering to visitors, residents and tenants and with enhanced offering at The Repulse Bay Arcade. We are noticing a trend of experiential travel in the high-end hospitality sector, and we're exploring new opportunities in luxury lifestyle experiences. Building on the success of The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, we are expanding our Peninsula signature experience division to Asia with a driving experience in April as well as exploring other lifestyle and motoring opportunities.

Thank you, Benjamin. We will now move on to the Q&A session. Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We do have a few questions coming up through the webcast. The first question is, how is the performance of Peninsula Hong Kong for 2025 quarter 1?

I'm pleased to say that The Peninsula Hong Kong has had a good start to the year so far. It is ahead of budget, which is good. We set it quite a challenging budget as well. So I'm very pleased to say that it started the year very well. Obviously, I can't disclose numbers at this time, but we are significantly ahead of budget, which is very reassuring.

Okay. Thank you, Keith. Second question, also through the webcast. What is the impact of Bangkok earthquake for Peninsula?

The buildings -- people are safe, all our guests are safe. The building is also okay. There are some very, very minor sort of damage maybe sort of cracks on buildings. But otherwise, there's no structural damage that we can see. The business, of course, I mean, we're now hearing that there will be cancellations. We don't know the extent yet because things are still coming through. It's still early days. So we do believe that there will be some negative impact in the next quarter.

Thank you, Christobelle. Next question. Can the company please comment on the profitability of Peninsula London and Istanbul? Is the company satisfied with the results since opening?

I can take that one as well. It normally ordinarily takes a new hotel in the luxury hospitality industry about 4 years to reach what we call stabilized level of earnings. Obviously, both hotels opened in 2023. So in terms of where they currently are, we're very pleased. In terms of revenue, they're probably way ahead of where they should be at this stage. Both are currently about #3 in their market against their competitive set. So yes, we're very pleased with the start they've had. Obviously, it's going to take another year to 2 years to get to that stabilized earnings that we expect. But yes, so far, so good.

Thank you, Keith. Next question. Are there any strategies for the company that the company can disclose at this stage?

At this stage, we -- the priorities for the company is to stabilize our revenues, as I discussed in the overall presentation. Being new in the team, I think I will take a couple of more weeks or months to put together a few more thoughts about where the company can continue to get stronger and stronger. And I hope to be able to share those in the next sessions that we will be organizing with you.

Thank you, Benjamin. A question on CRS. Can you provide some examples of potential long-term CapEx items for the company to achieve net zero?

We have been looking at -- in fact, we engaged a consultant to basically understand the gaps that we need to get to. However, for hospitality company, one of the -- so we have not made a definitive commitment on net zero. We are aiming to. There is still quite a lot that needs to be done. We are looking at the gap analysis and looking at what the potential sort of CapEx requirements are, and we are looking to do our very best to incorporate all of those practices.

Thank you, Christobelle. Next question. Can you please comment on the outlook for the Europe region for the hotel?

I think the outlook for the Europe region is really to stabilize the 2 new hotels that we have in both London and Istanbul. We are very pleased in the performance of the Paris hotel, particularly in the first quarter, which is the result of a more intentional strategy on pricing of the rooms. And we hope to continue learning more about the new markets where we opened, London and Istanbul. I think the defining trade for the company is that now we have a pool of hotels in that region, and that will allow us to grow maybe more strategies around the 3 properties together.

Thank you, Benjamin. We have a couple of more questions online. Do you expect to sell more or all your Peninsula London apartments this year?

Yes. So we currently have 7 apartments that are unsold. One is already under contract to be sold. So that will certainly be sold this year. We are actively marketing the remaining 6 apartments, and we are hopeful, cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to sell many of them this year, if not all of them this year. But obviously, there are -- London is quite a challenging market at the moment. So we are having a significant focus on that at the moment. But sales in the past have been good. As I said, we have one under contract already, and we're hoping to hopefully dispose of the other 6 fairly soon.

Okay. One more question on the web. What is the plan for the company to pay dividend?

Currently, the -- we have a defined dividend policy, which is obviously based on the profit of the company. We don't -- we're not profitable this year, as you can see. So obviously, there's no plan to pay a dividend. Obviously, we will monitor that going forward in future years. But the defined dividend policy is obviously based on profit of the company as well as other metrics as well. But...

Thank you, Keith. If there are any further questions, please do write to our Investor Relations mailbox. This now concludes our 2024 results presentation. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.