Thank you all for joining Hysan Development's 2022 interim results announcement webcast session. Now, let me introduce our panel for this afternoon. Here's our Chairman, Ms. Irene Lee. Our Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Ricky Lui, and our Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary, Mr. Roger Choi. We'll start today's session with a presentation from Irene, Ricky, and Roger, and we will follow that with time to take online questions. I'll invite Irene to start. Irene, please.
Thank you, Mark. Hello, everyone. I hope definitely next time it'll be in person. Firstly, let's talk about Hong Kong now and ahead. Hong Kong celebrates the 25th anniversary of HKSAR, and we ushered in new administration for the city. Among the expectations for new administration are to strengthen the momentum of policy development, which aligns with national strategies and addresses critical and urgent issues of livelihood, housing, and youth. We must ensure Hong Kong remains a successful international city, and importantly, we are confident that Hong Kong continues with 1 country, 2 systems. COVID-19 5th wave in the first months of 2022 interrupted Hong Kong's recovery, which was already seen in 2021. We were recovering quite well.
Since the Q2 of 2022, signs of recovery with relative moderation of the pandemic. I mean, there are still cases, and gradual relaxation of government measures. Of course, there are still concerns about the outlook. COVID-19 figures slowly rising again. Global uncertainties affect economic picture. Hysan's proactive management of our core business in Lee Gardens help drive traffic back into our area. We talk a lot about our smart community business model, our curation of tenant mix and experience, and the quality of our service throughout our area, malls, properties, and even the streets. We've seen, therefore, more than 25% rebound, increase of estimated tenant sales during Q2 when compared with Q1 .
If you do compare Q2 year-on-year with Q2 2021, when rebound and COVID cases were very limited, we were still flat. I think performance is reasonable. You've seen this diagram before. This is our core and growth pillar strategy. In the middle, you will see Lee Gardens Hong Kong, which includes all our core activities, our connectivity, our community curation, Lee Gardens rejuvenation, and of course, our Caroline Hill project. Alongside that, we have built, and the key word is built. We have actually now built, and they are operating and becoming accretive and going well. Certainly we're pleased with the progress.
These include the GBA Flex Business, our partnership with IWG, Lee Gardens Shanghai, our residential development and sales activities, and medical and health with our partner, New Frontier. On core, let's talk about Caroline Hill, our big project. That adds 30% to our core portfolio in Lee Gardens area. Work has commenced, we started early August 2022. For the other, rejuvenation activities, you will see Hysan Place will be transformed yet again, although it only turned 10 years old this year. We will be positioning it to be the trendsetter of new themes for different zones, and Ricky will give us more details of Hysan Place. As for Lee Gardens, within 2 years, you will see it becoming the home of luxury flagships, quality dining, special events and experiences to yet another level.
The walkways which will connect the entire Lee Gardens, including our new Caroline Hill buildings when it is done, will extend and expand our renowned sustainability-minded destinations. Before I leave that slide, I think you will see by the time Caroline Hill is completed, which is 2026 to 2027, Lee Gardens will be a very different Lee Gardens. In fact, by 2024, when the rejuvenation of Hysan Place and Lee Gardens area are completed, you will see a very different face of Lee Gardens. On this slide, you will see our pillars, our strategic growth engine pillars. We are making good progress to deliver a more balanced, diversified, and complementary portfolio with different vintages, which particularly include our residential developments, to give us different sources of income at different cycles.
This is really a growth as well as a defense strategy for us. You'll see Villa Lucca, which was recently launched, our beautiful luxury type of project, and I would welcome all of you to come and visit. Our To Kwa Wan URA residential project, which is a completely different theme, which leverages our community curation, and that is affordable multiple unit housing in the middle of Kowloon. Lee Gardens Shanghai, again, Ricky will talk about it. It's going to be the start of, we hope, Lee Gardens exporting its brand to China in Shanghai, in the Jing'an district. GBA Flex business with IWG is going well. In particular, given the structural changes in office usage, I think our entry into the co-working flex business area has been well timed.
New Frontier Group, we're very excited about our ability to take part in China's huge growth and dynamic, high-end healthcare business, which is very much, required and supported by policy. We now are ready, and we have started to export our successful smart community work life business model. I think we always talk about you come to Lee Gardens to work, to live, and to play. It is really the whole circle of life, the whole ecosystem of families. The whole work life business model is sort of also revolves around smart community and sustainability. We are exporting that to other areas within Hong Kong and beyond. For instance, the To Kwa Wan project and Shanghai, and there will be more to come. Finally, the outlook. With gradual relaxation of restrictions, Hong Kong's situation is improving.
Other international cities, of course, seeing the economies bounce back very strongly. Really everyone else is open for business. We are seeing the demand and we are seeing the enthusiasm for people to come out, and spend and eat and have you know a good time, claim back the 2 years that they have lost. Hong Kong's economy will also rebound and will maintain its status as a global financial and trading hub, as well as the top tourist destination. We are confident about that. Work will need to be done to further open up Hong Kong. We have done well. We can do more. There is plenty of room for us to reclaim the lost times. We will be strong again. That is from me. Thank you.
Now can we invite Ricky to talk about the business and operations review.
Good afternoon. May I introduce some of the highlights of our 2022 interim results. For revenue, our revenue is HKD 1,777 million, down 3.1%. Our recurrent underlying profit is HKD 1,169 million, down 0.7%. Dividend per share is HKD 0.27. Look at it by sector. The retail increased by 3.2%, while office down by 8.5%. Our balanced dual engine business model is fluid and dynamic. It allow us to optimize space allocation and tenant mix curation between office and retails. For occupancy, retail is 98%, office 91%, and residential 71%. Come to retail, we are nearly fully occupied. Our occupancy is 98%.
During Q1, the COVID-19 5th wave, the strict government restriction and the lack of incoming visitors leading to a serious impact on footfall. When we come to Q2, the drop in COVID-19 cases with loosening of restriction and consumption voucher issuance added far more vibrancy and spending to the market. We believe once the quarantine measures are lifted, the rebound will be significant. Look at it by trade, by categories. With the good performance of the high-end international brands of our area, our clothing, footwear and allied products outperformed the Hong Kong market. On the other hand, during the COVID time, the food and beverage of Lee Gardens areas, which is mainly discretionary retail, has suffered a bit more than the general market.
As Chairman pointed out, we see a very encouraging uplift, uptick from Q2 to Q1, with we up 10% and 5%, and we also see the trend continuing in our Q3 . Lee Gardens area is still very attractive, appealing to the F&B, beauty, spa, and kids concept stores. For the H1 , we have 25 new tenants housed at extension to the Lee Gardens area. Talking about our marketing initiatives and loyalty program. Our online and digital platform, which we have invest over the last few years, is impactful and has been engaging a new group of customers. Our well-established loyalty club, as usual, have provided a solid base for our business and have also reinforced our relationship with tenants and customers.
Through strategic partnership with third parties and brands, we have successfully leveraged on each quarter to generate effective business result. Highlight some of the activities. When we look at the Spring Sensations and other campaign, we see both the sales and the new member and recruitment increase. For the power of digital online campaign, we have more than 100 tenants participated. Both Club Avenue and Lee Gardens Club have double-digit spending increase per members. Talk about partnership. We have over 100 collaboration with different partners in the first 6 months. Look at the office. We have been very proactive in doing the lease management. Out of all the expiry leases in 2022, we have 63% already committed for the renewal. Lee Gardens area is still very appealing to wealth management, flexible workspace, and new economy operators.
If you look at the pie chart on the right-hand side, you can see the banking, wealth, management, and finance sector, as well as the new economy which we put co-work, tech, and medical and health together, it's already covering over 55% of the tenant space. Talk about residential. Hong Kong luxury residential leasing market remained quiet due to the lack of expats arriving in Hong Kong. Bamboo Grove, serving the same market segment, is affected too. Try to retain the occupancy, we have provided more flexible terms, lease terms, as well as more incentive to the agents. Talk about our core and pillar updates. The Caroline Hill projects. The foundation work has started in August, just started in August, and the expected completion date for the whole project is late 2026.
Just a recap, this project will add 1.1 billion square feet of GFA to the portfolio, which equal to 30% of our existing portfolio. On top, it will add 60,000 square feet of green, and this is a big features and a big addition to the sustainability features for the portfolio. For Lee Gardens rejuvenation, Hysan Place, as you know, this is a vertical mall. To activate a vertical mall, we are proud to provide a seamless vertical pleasant journey of attraction. You will enjoy all the whole journey from the B1 MTR entrance up to the top of the restaurant on the 14th floors.
Each zone will come with a new and unique theme, which will give you a lot of surprise, but those surprise I need to release later when the design and everything is more ready. When you come to Lee Gardens, we will reinforce ourselves as a destination for luxury retail flagship. We call ourselves home of luxury retail flagships. Of course, this will come with all the quality dining, special event and experience that will echo with our very strong VIP loyalty clubs to really make Lee Gardens a real big club for these sectors. Our beautiful Villa Lucca. This is a splendor of European style mansion with high quality and privacy. Since we launched it in August, we have hundreds of people visit it, a lot of potential buyers as well, and also some expert from architect to industry players.
This we receive a very high recognition about the quality of the development, which also reflect the quality of Hysan. Externally, we have received a double honors at the Asia Pacific Property Awards for its exceptional architectural design, which is very encouraging to the team. The project composed of 262 units, 160 apartments, 66 special units, 34 houses, and 2 signature houses. The size range from 1,010 sq ft to 8,030 sq ft. It also come with a very luxurious, well-designed by David Collins, a club house, which amount to 34,000 sq ft. For Lee Gardens Shanghai, the acquisition was completed in January this year. Upgrade work has started in July. The first tenant is going. We believe the first tenant will be committed within this year.
For IWG joint venture in flex business in GBA, 2 new centers have been added during the first 6 months. They are situated at Tower 535 on Jaffe Road and 8 Queen's Road East. Both are very good quality buildings and very prime locations. Up to now, we have 34 locations across GBA, and we believe the growth will continue because of the high potential of the GBA economy. To Kwa Wan residential projects. This is a joint venture with the reputable partner, Henderson Land and Empire Group Holdings. With Hysan skill set on community business model, we are invited to take care of the commercial portions both from design, development, and operation in future. We also take this chance to export our Hysan community business model.
For To Kwa Wan, we really want to engage the local community to the prosperity brought by the revitalizations. Investment in New Frontier Group. New Frontier Group being the largest leading private healthcare service provider in China, help Hysan give Hysan the strategic exposure for mainland China's fast-growing healthcare sector, particularly on the premium part. This year, they just opened the United Family Hospital in May at Shenzhen, which will serve both Hong Kong as well as the GBA affluent and middle-class family. We've mentioned sustainability. We strongly believe a sustainable community is important. For Causeway Bay, we have helped the government by providing value to set up 2 vaccination center, 1 at Leighton Centre and 1 at the Caroline Hill site. The Caroline Hill site is the largest temporary vaccination center in the public portfolio.
With the help and the support from our partner, China chem, Gammon Construction, and other consultants, we have this process set up within 10 days. This served thousands of people which we receive a lot of compliments from both the public and the governments. About To Kwa Wan, obviously, To Kwa Wan who have different needs compared with Causeway Bay. During COVID-19, we helped the local small entrepreneur by providing them with some air purifier, the RAT kits, food and care package to people in need as well. We also helped elderly to do their drainage checking as well as alternation. As a kind of very important measure to protect their health. We always talk about our smart communities model, the smart is very important. That means technology is very important.
We have jointly set up the community lab with Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation. The community lab will be a kind of environment, real-life environment for those technology startups to test their technology and application in a real-life case. We call it the last mile testings, so that their product and application will be more fit for use in the real life, in the real commercial market. Of course, the community lab is also a platform for them to meet and communicate with the investor and other industry experts. All this will help to structure them to become a more commercially viable company, rather than just a tech company. This is something that's a contribution to the Hong Kong tech scene as well. This is what I want to share with you. May I pass it to Roger?
Yes. Thank you, Ricky. After hearing key remarks from Irene and Ricky on the strategy and operations, I will be brief so that you can leave more time to Q&A sessions. Next slide are these 3 key numbers you all can see from the announcement. I'm not going to repeat it. Next, please. This page is actually the highlight, the usual highlight about our liability or capital sections. On the left, 1 point I want to highlight is there is no any particular big amount of debt that comes due in the next year or so. As you can see from the right-hand side, Hysan has an undrawn committed facilities.
Of about HKD 10 billion from bank. That should provide a very good liquidity contingency pool, should the situation warrants. Another part is as our continuous support on sustainability. You see that the sustainable finance source now accounts for almost half of our total debts and facilities. Finally, the next page is the indicative cap rate adopted by our valuer. Again, as you can see, there's no change in the cap rate adopted by them in valuing our properties. With this, I'll conclude my very brief update and now we can move on to the Q&A section I suppose, Mark.
Absolutely. Thank you, Roger, and thank you Irene and Ricky. Now, time for questions, and we'll start with a question from Fan Tso from Bank of America. Could you kindly comment and provide more colors about Hysan's leasing strategy for B1 and B2 levels of Hysan Place, given news about the tenant downsizing at B1 and a change in tenant at B2? Now, in general, how would Hysan strike a balance between taking the advantage of the near term upside from the border reopening as a sustainable tenant profile? Thanks.
Maybe I will start with an overview, and Ricky has all the details. On Hysan Place B1 and B2, negotiating and working with T Galleria has given us a win-win situation. I think T Galleria in a 1-level configuration will, on a per square foot basis, do magnificently well. With the tourists coming back, they will really be firing on all engines. I think for them it is the right size for the right time. For us, releasing the other floor and also the bottom floor from Market Place will enable us actually to completely reposition Hysan Place at the ground floor, the most visible facade street level, which then follows with B1, B2, which then connects with the MTR.
That has given us a fantastic opportunity to showcase a completely different Hysan and a completely different Kai Chiu Road. For those of you who haven't been to Kai Chiu Road recently, join the queue at Bakehouse. It's the smell, the look, is very attractive and it is a crowd pleaser. One of our directors said, you know, we see queues in front of Chanel and Hermès, but we also see queues in front of a lifestyle brand. You know, it's bread. It is fantastic. It is very much us, and this is very much what we want to do for Hong Kong as well. Ricky, maybe a little bit more color on the rest of the positioning.
I think, Chairman, you have make a very good summary already. 1 figure I want to share with the analysts. I was told the Causeway Bay MTR station have 500,000 traffic every day a few years back. With the line's extension, I believe, they are more now. As Irene said, the productivity of the T Galleria will improve by having 1 floor. At the same time, in light of those traffic, we try to make use of B1, B2 from other element that can to take advantage of the high traffic to generate popularity as well as high sales. These are the direction we are moving forward from as in try in doing our trade mix.
Obviously some F&B element will be there, as well as some interesting retail that can generate sales. That will be the starting point for connecting it back to all the vertical attraction all the way up to the 14th floor, as I had mentioned.
Great. Jeffrey Mak from Morgan Stanley has 2 questions. First one is a bit similar to an earlier question. Will you change your upcoming leasing strategy given the borders are gradually opening up? Second one is about Tai Po. Should we expect Tai Po residential project to be booked in 2022?
On the opening of the border and our strategy, as our friends here know, we have always been the most established Hong Kong resident, loyal Hong Kong resident, generations of Hong Kong resident, which includes new Hong Kong. W e have not heavily relied on tourists. Of course, we welcome them enormously because, you know, they come in big numbers, and they spend very well. O ur strategy will continue to be true to our brand. That is doing things well, curating dynamically and being relevant and staying ahead of the trends. That is why we are doing what we're doing for Hysan Place, which is really a mere youngster. It's just 10 years old.
Yet we find Hyatt Centric needs complete rejuvenation to address the changes in consumer behavior. In aspirations of what people expect. Lee Gardens will similarly go through a massive transformation. It's not more of the same, it is going to be what we do very well but at another, you know, 10 levels higher. Don't want to produce too much expectations, but do expect to see a very, very different Lee Gardens area. With or without the tourists, but no doubt the tourists will come. I think in my earlier presentation, I do believe Hong Kong will continue to be not just a global financial and trading hub, it will be a serious tourist attraction. People will simply come. They will come.
The second question is about whether Tai Po will be booked for 2022.
Well, maybe, let me share our thoughts on Jeffrey. I think, as Ricky mentioned earlier, the sales for Tai Po project have just been launched. I think it's kind of a little bit early for us to make a good prediction as to the sales progress. I'm sure along the way we will give you some updates. As to the booking timing, I think everyone knows there are certain very clear accounting rules as to when the revenue can be booked. Again, I'm sure along the way we can have a more accurate estimate about the timing.
Again, I don't want to overpromise, but really, if the project goes smoothly, it's just a matter of time, you know, the portfolio will come into our books, especially, you know, when we talk about, you know, whether that's end of the year or early next year. Sure, we will keep you guys posted.
Now, let's take a couple from Ken Yeung, from Citi. First one is how's our tenant sales in June and July of 2022 versus the pre-COVID, pre-social unrest level?
Roger or Ricky?
Yeah. I think for when we look at the sales for July and June, it goes back to the pre-COVID 5th wave time already, and the rebound is strong. It's just I would say we can see although it's been sustained in July and August from the figures we have collected. Although we still see about 7,000, 6,000 cases occasionally, but what we found is people already know how to live properly under the COVID time. They now also know how to become more structured in using their consumption vouchers from the government.
We will see this wave of consumption culture will have a lengthened support for this H2 of this year on retail sales.
Right. Okay, maybe I can add more, add some colors for Ken and the other friends to understand the situations. In terms of our retail portfolio, the occupancy cost ratio, as you may recall, back in the initial outbreak of the COVID, the OCR actually deteriorate quite significantly to like high 20 to 30 level before concession help from us. I'm also happy, you know, to share with you that we also see the OCR significantly reduced. Last year, 2021, basically that's not much significant outbreak per se. The OCR had already been back to a much more healthy level of early- to mid-20's. This first 6 months, again, we have 2 quite distinct quarter.
Q1 largely affected by the Omicron 5th wave and the OCR jack up, as you would imagine. Q2, we see the OCR back to a much more healthy level. All in all, if we look at the H1 altogether, the OCR is about low 20%. W ith Q2 significantly improved from the Q1. At that, I guess on that background, we do see a relatively okay environment for our retail tenants. For July, like Ricky just mentioned, based on early submission of the data, we continue to see, first of all, a month-on-month increase of tenant sales. That is an increase from June. At the same time, we also see year-on-year increase comparing to last July in 2021.
Ken's second question obviously is somewhat related. What will be the rental reversion outlook for Hong Kong office and retail in the H2 of 2022 and 2023?
Okay, maybe let me try to share some information with Ken and Ricky.
Yeah.
Later on, you can comment from a commercial point of view. In terms of rental reversion, the OCR that I talk about also is relevant in terms of the retail reversions. It's really like how much business they can do, and obviously that's largely affected by the you know, overall retail environment. 1 more thing about the retail is the rental concession that they might need. Again, the number, the OCR number that I just mentioned earlier, is all before any concession from us. You can see the underlying healthiness of the retail tenant.
As you can see from our announcement, the retail turnover for the H1 actually improved, both on a year-on-year basis, as well as 50/50 comparing with the H2 of last year. That is also a result of the reduction in concessions. I would say that we are in the tail end of that retail concession we granted in the previous year or so. Of course, going forward, it depends on the retail performance in particular. As we can see, like, back in 2020, there's a retail concession, and then 2021 a further reduction. Now we see a further reduction in the concession amount.
Just to give you a feel about the magnitude. Comparing with the concession we need for 2020, now I think we have seen a more than 50% reduction here hitting our P&L. Comparing to last year, it will be at least 25% to 30% less. The overall annual performance will depend on the result of the H2 of this year. On the office side, I think as you can see from our presentations, we had a mid-teen negative rental reversions. We have done about 65, I think by now close to 70% of the deal we need to handle this year.
Based on the forecast this year, for the rest of the year, I think the annual rental reversion probably will stay at that level, if not, you know, better around mid-teens or maybe in extreme case to high teens negative. Looking forward to next year, 2023. Well, first of all, the amount of lease that come to expiry is around 1/5, 20% of our area only. Another thing is the expiring rent. That is the outgoing rental for those 20% lease is on average 10% lower than the expiring rent of the lease that we need to deal with in 2022.
With all the things being equal, I think numerically, we have a lower hurdle per se to overcome. Again, the office rental performance will drive the overall reversion situations.
Yes. Thank you, Roger. As we're running out of time, we will take 1 more question. I have 1 here from Mark Leung from UBS. Mark says, "Can you guide us the CapEx involved for Hysan Place and Lee Gardens rebrand? And also, will the strategy materially impact on the short-term retail occupancy?
Right. I'll take-
Maybe Ri-
Yeah.
Yeah, Ricky or Roger.
Yeah.
I think for the overall investment for CapEx for the rejuvenation is about over HKD 2 billion. This was spread over about 5 years until 2026. It will be a bit back-loaded overall. About the impact on the temporary rental, we have been carefully done the planning so that all the major anchor tenant will have their temp shop open once we start the renovation work for some particular on the LG One. We minimize the impact on the temporary rental, on temporary rental loss.
Even for Hysan Place, we also have this kind of arrangement so that we don't have to minimize the whole floor or the period of office for renovation work. Roger, anything you wanted to supplement?
Yes. Thank you, Ricky. Maybe let me supplement on this, CapEx things. What Ricky mentioned is the overall grand plan of the AEI. I have to stress that these are uncommitted and are based on, you know, the best case ideal situations. We do have the flexibility to us to have pacing of the amount of the work. As you know, a lot of these works are in our existing building. We will be dynamic and continue to be dynamic in terms of balancing the impact on the operations, the rental before and after the asset enhancement, as well as the then operating performance.
Mm-hmm.
that we continue to have a stable and progressive operating cash flow. In the near term, like, the remainder of this year and 2023, I think the CapEx that we definitely will commit are primarily related to the T Galleria fit-outs, as well as some of the fit-outs in Lee Gardens One, which from a magnitude point of view is no different from the long-term average CapEx we spent over the last 10 years or so. Part of the reason why it will be that way is we want to manage the amount of CapEx required so as not to affect the core cash flow.
Well, thank you, Irene. Thank you, Ricky and Roger. Thank you everyone for participating. As Irene said, we hope to see you in person when we have our next set of results announcement session. See you then.
Okay, thank you. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye. Thank you.
Bye.