Good afternoon. Thank you all for coming to Hysan Development Company Limited's 2025 Interim Results Announcement Analyst Briefing Session. Let me introduce our panel for this afternoon: our Chairman, Ms. Irene Yun-Lien Lee, our Executive Director and COO, Mr. Kon Wai Ricky Lui, and our CFO, Mr. Yick Lam Andy Choi. We will start with the presentation from Irene, Ricky, and Andy, and then we will take questions from the onsite first. Now, I would invite Irene to start first. Irene, please.
Thank you. Welcome to the analyst briefing on Hysan Development Company Limited's 2025 interim results. Thank you very much for coming in this weather, and I know we have some competing results as well. Thank you. Hysan has been at the forefront of Hong Kong's development for over a century. Our legacy is built not only on tradition but also on continual reinvention. It reflects our commitment to anticipating society's constantly changing needs and responding to generational shifts from baby boomers to generation alpha. Our holistic reimagination of the Lee Gardens Precinct, in particular, is a testament to Hysan 's forward-looking vision and a continuation of our century-old legacy. For the first half of 2025, Hysan delivered solid results that outperformed the market.
Our key metrics registered positive growth, including turnover and recurring underlying profits that grew by 2.2% and 1.2% year-on-year, respectively. Our turnover for retail, office, and residential portfolio increased by 2.1%, 0.8%, and 12.4%, respectively. We also saw an increase for our Hong Kong market retail and office occupancy compared to last December, demonstrating the strength of our core portfolio. Based on our century-long curation and community business model, Lee Gardens is one of its kind, allowing us to achieve such solid results. The unique essence of Lee Gardens is the coexistence of luxury and transcendent elements, as well as authentic culture and original experiences that meet the needs of both the older and the younger generations.
In the first half of 2025, traffic at Lee Gardens area saw a 19% year-on-year increase, while tenant sales grew by 4% year-on-year, outperforming the market. Hysan 's long-term growth is guided by our core and pillars strategy. The core is focused on reinforcing and expanding the Lee Gardens Precinct to maintain its position as a vibrant commercial and cultural destination hub. By investing in continuous dynamic curation, which includes placemaking, unique experience offerings, and asset enhancement, we are committed to meeting the evolving needs of the community. The pillars underpin our diversified growth model, which complements asset-heavy developments with asset-light investments for our comprehensive business model. This is a model of diversification, which is executed according to prudent financial principles and was reflected in the financial contributions that have begun to materialize. We have now entered the harvest phase of our ongoing transformation journey.
The unveiling of the new Lee Gardens in 2024 marked a significant milestone in this journey, with more than 10 newly renovated and expanded flagship maisons for luxury brands, including the reopened Hermès, Dior, and Cartier, maisons for new in-store experiences. This positive momentum continued into the first half of 2025, as we welcomed the renovated Chanel maison at Lee Gardens 1. The development of other luxury flagships across our Lee Gardens portfolio made good progress, and our precinct was further enhanced by the addition of curated lifestyle brands. We look forward to unveiling more flagships and new retail concepts in the second half of 2025, cementing Lee Gardens' leadership as the city's premier luxury destination. We saw the arrival of strategic additions to the tenant mix at Lee Gardens Precinct, including curated lifestyle brands alongside fine dining restaurants.
Notable arrivals included Hong Kong's first Michelin Green Star-certified restaurant and renowned overseas F&B outlets, making their debut in Hong Kong. These additions complement the luxury flagship stores at Lee Gardens to deliver a holistic high-end retail and culinary experience. The contrast between the authentic experiences found at Lee Gardens area and our diversified brand mix is highly attractive to the locals and tourists. This is why Lee Gardens has become the preferred choice for brands from mainland China and from overseas, opening their first store in Hong Kong. Among the brands include renowned Japanese lifestyle store, Japanese restaurant with over 90 years of history, popular dining brands from mainland China, and fashion label that is sweeping the Korean fashion scene. These are all firsts. They have all chosen to make their Hong Kong debut here at Lee Gardens, a proven recognition of our appeal for the market.
Lee Gardens is a favorite office destination in the heart of commercial Hong Kong, leveraging a number of key strengths. Our full-range office offerings, which combine traditional office space with flexible coworking solutions, offer both stability and agility, ensuring we remain responsive to the changing needs of businesses and tenants. Our flagship Lee Garden 8 project, a 1 million sq ft premium commercial development, is on track for completion in 2026 next year. The project will expand our Lee Gardens leasable portfolio by about 30% and will bring an estimated increase of 20% in daily footfall in our area. Designed in partnership with the world-renowned architectural firm Foster + Partners, Lee Garden 8 is distinguished by the largest commercial floor plate in Hong Kong Island, complemented by a green indoor and outdoor concept.
Serving as a focal point for community interaction, the 60,000 sq ft open green space will embody our vision of a next-generation workplace and retail centerpiece that promotes a sense of community. This is an urban oasis. Superstructural works for the project made satisfactory progress, topping out expected to be carried out by the end of this year. Connectivity is central to our vision. Scheduled for completion in 2026 also, an integrated pedestrian walkway system will seamlessly connect the Lee Gardens area to the Causeway Bay MTR station within five to seven minutes, depending on how fast you walk, transforming the Lee Gardens Precinct into a walkable neighborhood. The new pedestrian walkway system will offer expanded retail space beyond the street level and traditional floors. By blending work, leisure, living, and entertainment, the Lee Gardens area will set a new standard for placemaking in Hong Kong.
It also exemplifies Hysan's ongoing commitment to creating a human-centric community. Having shared with you our major achievements and progress, I would like to invite you to watch a short video together showing the new integrated pedestrian walkway system unveiled to be unveiled in 2026. It's better than words, isn't it? You will soon be experiencing it by mid-year next year. Our strategic pillars contribute to both business and geographic diversification. Our quality assets, Lee Gardens Shanghai, has secured high-quality tenancies, solidifying an office tenant mix that spans reputable financial institutions and multinational corporations. The project also offers a diversified retail mix to create enhanced experience for tenants and for visitors. The performance of our flex office business in our joint venture with the world's leading flex operator, IWG, continues to yield steady growth across the Greater Bay Area.
New Frontier Group, our healthcare investment, also maintains steady business growth momentum. I'll now pass the floor to Ricky, who will share with you more about Hysan's business operations for the first half. Thank you, Ricky.
Thanks, Irene. Let me share with you more about Hysan's business performance for the first half of the year, our interim results. Our group's turnover grew by 2.2% year-on-year, supported by solid performance across core business segments. Turnover of our Hong Kong retail portfolio increased by 0.8% to HKD 851 million. Occupancy rate increased to 94%. Rental reversion rate on renewals, rent reviews, and new leases was predominantly positive. For our Hong Kong office portfolio, turnover declined by 2.4% to HKD 703 million. Despite market headwinds, occupancy rate of our Hong Kong office portfolio increased to 92%. Our full-range office offerings, which combine traditional office space with flexible coworking solutions, offer both stability and agility, ensuring we remain responsive to the changing needs of business and tenants. Hong Kong luxury residential leasing market made a steady recovery in the first half of 2024.
Our residential leasing portfolio saw a 12.4% increase in turnover to HKD 118 million. Occupancy rate was at 70%, as your average rental reversion was positive. As for Lee Gardens Shanghai, it continued to benefit from strong occupancy ramp-up last year and delivered a new stream of recurring earnings for our group. About our retail, tenant sales of our Hong Kong retail portfolio increased by 8% in the second quarter, with occupancy growing to 94%. We have been addressing the evolving demands of customers by refreshing our brand mix with a variety of exciting new offerings, including some first-in-Hong Kong brands. The turnover of our Hong Kong retail portfolio consistently outperformed Hong Kong retail market sales, powered by our innovative marketing and our strong loyalty programs.
The curated in-store experience from the expanded maison for luxury brands and the strategic addition of a vibrant mix of new and renowned F&B outlets, and the introduction of a series of high-profile pop-up stores and events at Hysan Place, all attribute to the increase in sales. We're also strategically leveraging the digital engagement to attract a more diverse customer base. Talking about our loyalty program, we have been receiving long-term support from our loyal members. Compared to the same period last year, member spending at Lee Gardens has increased by 20%, while the number of transactions by Club Avenue members has increased significantly by 31%. The average annual spending of our top-tier members is expected to surpass HKD 1.6 million. We identify our target customer through AI analytics and adoption of big data from our data lake.
From Hong Kong old and new generations to those who enjoy life and value well-being, our all-tier member base ensures a balanced contribution that enhances our resilience instead of over-reliance on those super high-spending members. Customer trend and digital engagement. As a marketing effort, we implemented more than 110 campaigns in the first half of the year to engage the community, driving over 4 million footfall, making Lee Gardens a vibrant destination for locals and tourists. Partnership is another key for the performance. We collaborate with more than 60 strategic partners in a series of exclusive pop-up stores and joint campaigns to engage the community. These events generated a robust increase in traffic and sales and gained widespread media exposure. Nowadays, industry players need to be creative in delivering more engaging experiences that resonate with the customer's changing preferences.
At Hysan, we have been addressing the evolving demand of customers by refreshing our brand mix with a variety of exciting, innovative new offerings. All this effort has made Lee Gardens the go-to area that attracts quality and repeat visitors, which amount to over 100,000 daily traffic. Talking about office, for our Hong Kong office portfolio, tenants' retention exceeds 70%. Occupancy increased to 92%, supported by our ongoing efforts to diversify tenant mix by leveraging our unique positioning and offering. Our diversified tenant base helps our office portfolio remain resilient. As mentioned, we have a full-range office offerings, combining traditional office space with coworking solutions so that we can respond quickly to different needs of tenants. Lastly, I want to report about our capital recycling plan for our non-core assets.
As a prudent financial discipline, we have kickstarted the capital recycling plan, conquering strategic sales of our non-core material assets, including two blocks of Bamboo Grove and the build-to-sell projects of Villa Lucca and Tokau One residential developments. We're targeting for HKD 8 billion in capital recycling over the next five years, which will help us unlock value for mature residential assets, optimize our capital structure for deleveraging, and provide capital for strategic needs. I will now pass the floor to Andy, who will share with you more about Hysan's financial performance for the first half of 2025.
Thank you, Ricky. As Irene and Ricky both mentioned, prudent financial management remains our top priority. For the first half, we have delivered a solid improvement in our turnover and also our operating cash flow. We continue to deliver a sustainable return to our shareholders. Hence, we have capped our DPS at HKD 0.27 for the first half. For shareholders' fund and NAV, this is like the kind of 1.2%, mainly reflecting the RUP improvement of 1.2% offset by the non-cash fair value change or investment property. On financial and capital management, we continue to maintain a very strong liquidity and a strong balance sheet. For net gearing, as of June 30th, the net gearing was at 33%. That's a slight increase of around 1.5% from last year's end. This is consistent with our own budget, as our capital project continued on track and within budget.
The effective interest rate has reduced from 4.3% in 2024 to 3.8% during the periods, thanks to a drop in HIBOR in Q2, mainly. We continue to maintain a healthy mix of fixed rate and floating rate debt. Our fixed rate debt ratio is around 56% as of June. For average debt maturity, it's around 3.2 years. It continues to be very healthy and stackers. For unjoined committed facility and cash, we continue to keep around HKD 15.3 billion of unjoined committed facility and together with cash. That's more than enough to meet our refinancing need over the next three years. We have a 42% of green finance, and that is ahead of the target we set for the group. In the first half, we have also successfully completed the refinancing of $750 million support. That gives us a stability and good access to the debt capital market.
We are also actively using different financial instruments to manage our interest rate. Some of our USD loans have been converted into HKD to minimize FX risk and also to optimize the interest exposure. Next, we'll be on cap rate. We have, again, kept our cap rate stable. The fair value change was mainly due to rental change during the period. That's all the updates from the panel. Have a rest of the time, thank you, Chaiman.
Thank you. We remain committed to pursuing sustainable growth and value creation. We recognize that the outlook for the remainder of 2025 is shaped by considerable uncertainties in the global economic environment. We are very mindful of these complex market conditions, which require ongoing vigilance and prudent risk management. Nonetheless, we are confident in Hong Kong's enduring position as the leading global financial center and its vital role as an important hub of activities within the Greater Bay Area. Our continued investment in the Lee Gardens Precinct and our diversified growth strategy ensure that we are well prepared to capitalize on emerging opportunities. Hysan's forward-looking vision is transforming the Lee Gardens neighborhood with an emphasis on inclusivity and sustainability. Our strategic direction is a continuation of Hysan's century-old legacy built on trust, harmony, and shared values.
Our strategy has played a pivotal role in the growth of Causeway Bay as a vibrant hub, with the Lee Gardens area serving as a beacon of distinctive offerings and cultural vitality. Together, these have contributed to Hong Kong's ongoing development as an international city. With a positive outlook for our rejuvenated Lee Gardens, we are confident in Hysan's ability to continue delivering a robust business performance. Our vision, transformation initiatives, and proven track record serve as a strong foundation for long-term growth. We will remain steadfast in our commitment to financial discipline and risk management. Our strong and disciplined execution of our core and pillars strategy will continue to deliver sustainable long-term value for our stakeholders. With optimism, determination, and a strong competitive edge, we will continue to shape the future of Lee Gardens and contribute to Hong Kong's sustainable development. Thank you.
Thank you, management. It is the Q&A session now. We will take questions from the analysts onsite, and then we will take questions from the online platform. Maybe Fan Tso first. Please take the mic.
Hi. Hi, Fan Tso from Bank of America. Thank you for taking my question, and thank you for the capital recycling commitment. I think investors would like it. My question is more on the retail. I want to get your sense about our retail in July and early August. I think the weather doesn't help, but last year is still a relatively low base. I just want to see if it is still in the positive territory. Second, on the turnover rent, I see a decline year-over-year, but this year we should have more AEI space reopened compared to last year. I wanted to know the reason behind and how would you comment on the performance of those luxury tenants? Lastly, a question for Andy. I wanted to know your appetite for convertible bonds. Thank you.
Another sales pitch? Andy, maybe you can answer this question.
Thanks. First of all, on the retail side, we are seeing very strong. Of course, the market is still very difficult. We understand it. We have delivered very solid performance in terms of tenant sales in the first half. We have mentioned about 4% around mid-single-digit percentage increase for the first half. In particular, for Q2, we have recorded an 8% increase year-on-year. We are seeing a very healthy improvement, in particular in the watch and jewelry sector, and also the cosmetic and personal care sector as well. It might be a bit early to talk about the sales figure in August or July because we are still collecting the information from tenants. We do see improved member sales spendings. We think we are on track with that. The weather doesn't help. That's true. All this is the backdrop is really consolidations.
The market is difficult, but we want to help our tenants to really perform and have a better business. The second question is on AEI, right? On turnover rent, right? On turnover rent, we have reported improved rental levels. That's positive rental reversion. That means a higher base rent. It takes time. The sales is growing. In the meantime, the turnover rent might be affected by these higher thresholds. The third question is on this convertible bond.
Convertible bond.
We have, of course, there's a lot of the demand has become more active in the first half. We are mindful of the dilutive impact of such instruments, and I think we will continue to monitor the situations and balance the interests of different stakeholders.
I might add a few words on the retail atmosphere. No question, it is difficult. There is so much talk about how dilutive it is to go north and so forth. We actually look at it quite differently. We just want to focus on the attraction of our area, why people should come to us, and why they should stay longer and spend more. That is really very important. Therefore, offering a wider spectrum of experience as well as ways to spend money, from F&B all the way to you can be on the high end, but all the way, everyone always buys high and low and low and high. There has to be a very, very broad offering. You can also see how we look at our memberships as well. We pursue a broader and broader base of membership.
Of course, our high-spending members are very, very key to us. You know we value our Club Avenue very, very much. They cannot be our sole reliance. We need to not just broaden the base for diversification purpose, but through the diversification and through our AI, we actually can harvest a lot more effectively and channel them up the value chain as well. This is what we work on a lot. Yes, it's very, very difficult. Yes, people don't have to spend in Hong Kong, but I actually think that people do want to spend for the right area, for the right thing. We're not saying, "Oh, you know retail is dead." Not in the slightest. Specifically in our area, apart from all the good things we're doing, because we're still doing it, you can see that there's a lot of hoardings.
Hysan Place is almost all wrapped up in the front. This has to be difficult to attract. We actually have done quite well. Hysan Place, we focus on curating very, very powerful events. People don't seem to care about all the hoardings and all the white cloths. They still come in. We're not denying it. It's very difficult. I think Andy's point on an increased lower base will always take away your turnover rent initially. In today's climate, it's very important to continue to build your assured rent because turnover is turnover. We also must do our best to help our tenants do well. This is really our strategy. Always help our tenants in every way to do well because if they do well, we do well. I think our results show resilience. Can it be better? Of course.
There are so many factors that can improve, including as we finish our rejuvenation and we are entering the final, final stages. That would be quite magnificent.
The lady on the first row.
Hi, management. This is Percy from DBS. I thank you for taking my questions and congratulations on the results. My first question will be on the capital recycling initiative. You mentioned that you aim to recycle around HKD 8 billion capital in the next five years. Can we have a sense in terms of the pace, whether when we will gradually see this HKD 5 billion, HKD 8 billion coming back? In terms of the priorities for using this capital, are we prioritizing for debt reduction, investments, or even would we consider to reward to shareholders like buyback or even special dividend? Secondly, would be another follow-up question in terms of the retail portfolio.
I, of course, your portfolio definitely outperformed the market, but one of your peers also mentioned that given the outlook among retailers are quite cautious and they are now talking about negative reversions in the second half, what would be your outlook in the second half as well? Finally, I will have a question on the office side. Given that the capital market has improved recently, do you see any improvement in terms of the inquiry? Does this translate into stabilization in terms of the spot rates? How many percentage of the leases are we having to be renewed in the second half and how many of them have been committed? Thank you.
A lot of questions. Maybe I'll just answer the order of the recycling. The order of the recycling is somewhat dictated. For instance, [Tokau One] by achieving OP. That is towards the end of the year.
Free sales.
Free sales, consent. That's towards the end of this year, right?
Yes.
Villa Lucca in Tai Po has been an ongoing sales process, and we are very happy to see quite an optimistic and the speed of interested buyers coming through in the last six months. For Bamboo Grove, it is not a new initiative because we have been planning it for a while, but it will be a new launch. We will update you when we have the numbers. Maybe Ricky or Andy, you want to talk about the retail environment?
Maybe talk about the retail environment. As we all are aligned, the market is still tough. At the same time, if we look at the sales of our individual tenants, it's quite related to the reversion or even attracting our new tenants. We always like to talk about, let's say, Hysan Place. Since we've completed B1, B2 renovations, and then the project, we are so actively curating the space. Now you see the free corns, you see the expanded floor, and you can see you can't find a seat in the food court during the day or over the weekends. I think our form is a bit different from the general, maybe our peer, in that we got a piece of land that we're holding for 100 years, and we spent decades to curate it.
When we talk about half, it's not half, it's about something we planned six months ago. It's half of something that we planned 10 years, five years, for example. You see the transformation of the kind of, we call the low-rise area, the Pasar Row, Nanfang Road, from nobody to now the Mardi, Stu Si, like the all day. This form of fair good space for organic growth counters a little bit of the old-fire environment. I think that's the unique part of our formula. Of course, we still need to work together with our tenant. There's always some people who will not perform. So far, we find the tenants that work together with us are really quite a win-win situation. They perform quite well, and that supports the rental on renewal or even attracting tenants.
Okay. A bit on the lumber, Percy. First of all, for retail rental reversion, for the first half, like Ricky mentioned, predominantly positive. In terms of percentage level, we are still talking about a high single-digit percentage increase in terms of rental reversion. A lot of those is attributable to several key anchor tenants opening in the first half. There are a lot of questions. Some of these major players are driving the rental reversion. Overall, as Ricky mentioned, with our improved tenant sales, we are seeing improvements in our overall portfolio as well. I think that's the outlook. For office activity, yes, indeed, we are seeing increasing viewing activities, more interest on corporate, and maybe the time to, of course, from the market angle, we are seeing positive lag tech out in Q2. I think there's a lot more activity in terms of office leasing.
Also, our occupancy improved from 90% to 92%. For rental reversion, our office rental reversion is still in mid-teens negative, but it has improved 3 percentage point for last year.
Our retention rate is over 70%. I think that is quite key in our resilience because we have to both retain. You have to defend and attack because there is still an oversupply and there's still a sluggish demand. You just have to be the best, and not by price. That's very important.
If you look at the portfolio, the financial part or the wealth management part, actually, quite a sector is that we do attract a lot of potential new tenants because we already have that. You know, we have the Santa Clara, we have the HSBC, AIA, all this. Even the Ys are downstream. It seems that we have already attacked the position about quite a good wealth management center in Hong Kong. That's why we attract new wealth management center projects.
Yeah. For office, because of the lack of demand and the oversupply, you have to be more creative, is one word, but you have to be more agile in attracting other potential tenants. For instance, the service trade, the medical trade. We had a very, very big asset in attracting the wealth space. I mean, you all come from the banks, and every single bank talks about wealth as the growth sector. We are a very, very attractive place for wealth. Once we attract the wealth sector, the wealth also drives spending and easing. We have to make sure we drive the ecosystem. As they succeed, the retail people succeed. I think it's all about getting the engine revving more powerfully.
We just have to focus on not just, "Oh, we must maintain the same type of segments." We're very, very, we're thoughtful about how we can, yeah, attract other trades.
We have questions from the online platform. It is from Stephen of Fortune Investment. Could the management share more color about the financing strategy of the debt profile, especially for the 2027 maturity, which is the peak of the maturity profile, given the times of the headline news this day?
Thank you for the questions. First of all, Hysan continues to have very strong banking assets. That's why we have a HKD 15.3 billion unjoined committed facility. It's right that we have a SaaS maturing in 2027 in relation to the construction of Lee Garden 8. It's common practice for our industry to refinance this as a secured operational. This is our base case expectation at the moment.
Due to the time constraint, we will take one last question from the online platform. It is from Ming Zhang of Simple Way. Could the management share the dividend policy for the coming years?
Dividend policy is always dictated by the operating environment, our capital needs, our growth needs, and of course, first and foremost, to make sure we look after our shareholders. We don't give forecasts. We don't give guidance. You can see we are paying HKD 0.27 again, which is flat, which I think is quite a good indication of our confidence in making sure we maintain a stable environment, which I think is the best gift for our shareholders.
Yeah, sure.
Just a follow-up on the bond maturity and dividend policy. Would you consider launching a scrip dividend in the coming years to preserve your cash and deal with the bond maturity? You have newly issued a new perpetual capital security that carries a quite high interest rate. It's 7.2%, right? Why would you be willing to issue such a high interest rate PCS? Is it difficult to get attached to the bank borrowing? How would you manage to do the refinancing strategy to lower your net gearing and give more buffer to the bond maturity?
Thank you. Thank you for the questions. I think first on scrip dividend, again, we are mindful of this dilutive impact of potential and its potential scrip dividend issue. I think in the meantime, first of all, the group has strong access to uncommitted facilities, and we have our debt profile well managed. I think scrip dividend will continue to monitor, but there's no immediate plan on doing any of those. For perpetuals, again, for financing strategy, I think it's very important that we think long term. We always focus on building a balanced capital structure, via different kinds of instruments. There are a few factors that we have to really balance. First of all, of course, funding cost is important. Cost of capital is important. It's also important to maintain long-term access to the bond market as well.
We have to adjust bondholders' expectations and also credit rating agencies we use on our credit situations. I think balancing all these factors, the perpetual instrument, of course, gives us the benefit of equity treatment. In terms of the price, it's actually on par with our, if we assess the previous instrument, it would be in a similar level, of course. I think the perpetual remains a very strategic part of our capital structure. As we talked about the capital recycling plan, we have also initiated this HKD 8 billion capital recycling plan over the next five years. We will continue to optimize our capital structure and refine it over time.
Thank you, management. We can conclude our session today. Thank you all for coming to our session.