Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Swire Pacific 2025 Interim Result Analyst Briefing. Joining us today at the briefing are Mr. Guy Bradley, Chairman of Swire Pacific, Mr. Martin Murray, Finance Director of Swire Pacific, and Ms. Karen Soh, Chief Executive Officer of Swire Coca-Cola. Before we take a detailed look at our interim results for 2025, we would love to share with you a short video highlighting the key developments and achievements of Swire Pacific in the first half of 2025. Please enjoy the video. We hope you enjoyed the video. May we now invite Guy, Martin, and Karen to take us through the details of the interim results of 2025.
Good evening and thank you for joining us. I'll start with the group corporate overview. I would say at the strategic level, number one, we have very strong underlying profit from the property division, boosted, as you heard earlier, by the excellent disposal of the retail at Brickell City Centre in Miami and a couple of the other Miami adjacency pieces of land, which we've also managed to dispose. That's really helped the underlying profit on property. That puts the property division 67% committed down their plan of investing HKD 100 billion over the next 10 years. We're only three years into that. That's a very sort of accelerated performance, I think, in terms of commitment. I would say that they've got seven major projects under construction at this point in the Chinese mainland. I don't think we've ever had as many projects under construction, reflecting that investment and commitment.
There's a lot of work going on on the property side. The other major milestone strategically, I think, for properties in the first half was the successful sale of the first residences that we've built in the Chinese mainland, and that's in Lujiazui Taikoo Yuan. It's on the bank of the river in Shanghai. Great product. We've sold two batches already, and they're nearly completely sold out. They were sold out within the hour for each batch, so had a great response there. It's the first time Swire Properties has put its brand on the residential sector in the Chinese mainland. Quite a landmark milestone there for Swire Properties. In beverages, I would call it a solid performance. There have been challenges in Southeast Asia, no doubt, and I'll come on to some of those later.
The investment that we're making in the beverage business continues, and we currently have four new production plants under construction in the Chinese mainland, and a new plant in Vietnam was inaugurated in July this year. We continue to invest in production capacity to cater for the growth in the region. On aviation, the sector continues to perform well for us, as you heard yesterday, and we're very happy that Cathay and HAECO look like having another strong year. Financially, both underlying profit and recurring underlying profit are basically close to prior year, generating HKD 5.5 billion and HKD 4.7 billion of profit, respectively. A good set of numbers, I think, given the climate that we're operating in. We've decided to pay a 4% increase in ordinary dividend per A share to HKD 1.30 . Martin can cover that in a bit more detail in a second.
In terms of the business level of the company, property, I'd say the retail market is performing well in the Chinese mainland, which somewhat offsets the softness that we're all very familiar with in Hong Kong office. Those are our two main contributors in the property business. One's going reasonably well, one's still soft. EBITDA growth in the Chinese mainland at beverages has been positive, and that has offset some of the challenges in Southeast Asia, which I mentioned earlier. Those challenges range from the relocation of the Ho Chi Minh City plants, the depreciation of the Vietnam Dong, and the competitive environment in Thailand, which has been partly offset by a higher contribution from the increased shareholding that we've taken in Thailand and Laos.
Aviation, as I said, continues to perform well based on strong capacity growth and increased demand for maintenance on the HAECO side, with HAECO achieving a 40% growth in recurring profit in the first half. Good performance there by HAECO. Martin.
Thank you, Chairman. Good evening. As the Chairman said, we believe these are very solid results in this time of uncertainty. We'll start with the underlying profit of HKD 5.5 billion and recurring underlying profit of HKD 4.7 billion, being pretty similar to the prior year. Once you adjust for the change in value of the investment properties, the statutory profit is down at HKD 815 million. Very strong cash generated from operations, a lot better results from HAECO, and that includes the land sale of $211 million in the Brickell Key land, which we'll talk about in later slides. As the Chairman mentioned, we have a progressive dividend policy, so continue to pay that at HKD 1.30 per A share. In terms of the underlying profit, between the underlying profit and the recurring underlying profit, the non-recurring items are very similar to last year.
In 2025, it's basically all made up of the Brickell Key retail and car park sale, that HKD 833 million non-recurring that you see on the left-hand side. The prior year, you had the Taikoo Shing Car Parks, and the other two were non-core assets relating to Cadillac, the disposal of Cadillac, and a fair value gain in Cadillac. This then is a good description of describing our underlying profit. You can see clearly there the strong underlying profit in Swire Properties, the good results from aviation, the solid results from beverages despite the challenges that the Chairman mentioned in Southeast Asia. You'll see the head office, the other there's a little bit higher interest rates, but also the non-recurring items in Cadillac last year just that we just mentioned. In terms of our recurring profit on the right-hand side there, again, it's the same bit.
It highlights there on the right-hand side the strong results on the recurring basis of the HAECO group and in Cathay Pacific, and properties and beverages being marginally down. Balance sheet remains strong, gearing at 23%. Weighted average cost of debt 3.7%, fixed to floating 66%, net debt of HKD 71.3 billion. Very high liquidity of HKD 64 billion and a solid maturity profile. In terms of sustainability, we very much focus on carbon, waste, water, people, and communities. We're very proud of all of our core divisions in terms of how they lead in sustainability. As you saw on the video there, Swire Properties is up at 60% of renewable energy. Swire Beverages is up 55%. That makes up 88% of our Scope 1 and 2, those two divisions. We're well on track for our 2030 commitments. Thank you.
Just going into more detail on the business review property. The first half was very much one of the progress we made in capital recycling and some various upgrades that we're making to the existing portfolio. I mentioned the sales of Taikoo Yuan residences, and of course, we like that because you get the cash in early and you're able to turn the capital around relatively quickly on the trading side. That's gone very well so far. You heard Tim say that we're hoping to launch the third batch later in the year. The big story on capital recycling, though, has been in Miami. Brickell City Centre land was sold for $211 million. That was completed in May. There was a small area of land called North Squared, which we've just completed the sale in July for $45 million.
There was the big deal with Simon Properties where we disposed of the Brickell City Centre retail and the car parking spaces for approximately $550 million. All in all, good disposal track record for this year, which will allow us to put some of those funds into the big projects in Miami, which is the remaining residential projects on Brickell Key, where we're selling the residences and building a new Mandarin Oriental Hotel in a two-tower development. We've already commenced pre-sales on that. Things are going well over there. In terms of the numbers, the underlying profit grew 15%, reflecting those higher disposal gains in the U.S.A. That was partly offset by a reduction in rental income from Hong Kong office portfolios, which have been soft, as we said, and higher losses from property trading. On a recurring basis, I think we're down 4%.
This is a now familiar chart, I think, having used this several times already. It basically tracks our progress against the HKD 100 billion investment plan. There you can see we're now 67% committed. Most of that commitment of the HKD 50 billion is in the Chinese mainland. We're at HKD 46 million. We're about half committed on our trading in Southeast Asia targets and about a third in Hong Kong. In terms of upcoming projects, we've got a strong pipeline and a balanced pipeline of developments across markets. This chart just shows you can see there's plenty going on in the Chinese mainland in 2026 and 2027. I've referred to those projects under construction. In Hong Kong, three residential projects, the Headland Residences this year. Next year, there'll be a project residentially in Wan Chai. We have some residential and office developments coming online in 2028 in Quarry Bay.
In Southeast Asia, we're still selling our luxury project down in South Jakarta called Savyavasa, whilst the exciting new project in Bangkok should be ready in 2028. There's another project or two under discussion in Ho Chi Minh City. Lots going on on the trading side in Southeast Asia. The Hong Kong portfolio, I mean, we think that the office stock that we have is very well positioned to benefit from a recovery in demand when that demand does start to recover. We're benefiting at the moment from a flight to quality, meaning that in a sort of semi-soft environment at the moment, our occupancy levels are above market, and we're sitting at 91% across Pacific Place and Taikoo Place.
On the retail side, our occupancy levels are at 100%, and we're starting to see a small pickup in the results in the last couple of months on retail, particularly at Pacific Place. In the Chinese mainland, we've had a very healthy CAGR of 11% in terms of attributable gross rental income in the middle chart there between 2016 and 2024. The right-hand chart shows that we expect to double our GFA in the Chinese mainland in the next, well, between 2020 and 2030, I would say. Very significantly, for the first time on the left-hand side, you can see that the contribution of gross rental income from Chinese mainland retail has just overtaken Hong Kong office, which for a long, long time was our biggest contributor. Karen, thanks.
Thank you, Chairman. Onto the Swire Coca-Cola business in Greater China. We announced in 2023 that Swire Coca-Cola's total investment in the Chinese mainland would exceed RMB 12 billion over the next decade. The RMB 12 billion investment plan includes new production facilities in Zhengzhou, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and more recently, we announced a new production plant to be built in Hainan. Our new production facilities in Zhengzhou and Shanghai are expected to commence operation gradually in the phase from quarter four this year, while the facility in Guangzhou is set to be operational by quarter two of next year. In June this year, we announced a plan to establish a beverage production base in Haikou, a high-tech industrial development zone, with the construction scheduled to begin within this year. The project aims to expand our production capacity and efficiency, meeting the consumer demand in Hainan.
In terms of the financial results, revenue from the Chinese mainland increased by 3% in local currency, with EBITDA margin improving to 12.8%. Over to the Southeast Asia side, in July this year, we inaugurated a new $136 million flagship manufacturing plant in Vietnam, Da Nang Province, which is an hour and a half next to Ho Chi Minh City. This is the largest of our three production sites in Vietnam, and the facility is the first food and beverages plant in Vietnam to achieve LEED Gold Green Building Certificate, reflecting our commitment to innovation and sustainability. This investment will reinforce our long-term commitment to Vietnam, supporting our sustainable growth, generating significant employment, and is expected to help our business to continue to grow and mark the market share in the country. Swire Coca-Cola recorded an EBITDA of HKD 2.8 billion in the first half of 2025.
The increase is mainly due to the higher contribution from the franchise business in Thailand and Laos, with our increase in attributable interest since October last year. The result in the Chinese mainland remained resilient, with our EBITDA increasing by 6%, contributed by a 3% revenue growth despite operating in an environment where consumer demand was subdued. In Vietnam and Cambodia, the EBITDA decreased by 28%, while revenue declined. The underlying results were adversely impacted by the depreciation of the Vietnamese Dong, reduction of our effective shareholding in the Cambodia franchise, and also the expenses on the relocation of the Ho Chi Minh plant to the new Da Nang plant that we just inaugurated.
In Thailand and Laos, EBITDA increased with our increase in attributable profit interest, and the businesses were, however, adversely affected by economic uncertainty and the very intense competition and the implementation of the phase four of the Sugar Tax Legislation. Recurring attributable profit is similar to last year. Chinese mainland grew by 8%, with the result for the first half year of 2025 was affected by softer consumer momentum and also incremental expenses on the capacity enhancement project in Vietnam and Taiwan. On the category mix, sparkling remains our largest driver among our portfolio at 73%. Juice comes next at 12%. Swire Coca-Cola is committed to continue growing our sparkling business while also offering a future-oriented portfolio of market-leading brands in other key categories. On the revenue resources, our revenue source mainly comes from Chinese mainland, followed by Thailand and Laos.
You will see on the financial data at the bottom right-hand side, revenue increased by 25% with full-period contribution from Thailand and Laos. EBITDA margin remained almost flat at 12.8%. As mentioned earlier, overall EBITDA margin maintained almost flat at 12.8%, with the Greater China market remaining resilient while the Southeast Asia market faced challenges. In terms of revenue by region, there was revenue growth in Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. However, revenue declined slightly in Taiwan in local currency, and there was a drop in Vietnam and Cambodia due to a very difficult market situation and intense competition. EBITDA margin continued to improve for our Chinese mainland business. However, Taiwan and Vietnam were particularly impacted by the additional operating costs incurred for the Taoyuan site redevelopment project and also the relocation of our Ho Chi Minh City plant to the new site.
With that, I will hand it over back to the Chairman.
Thank you. Moving to aviation, you'll see the numbers on the right-hand side there. We said that the aviation division continues to perform well. The recurring profit of HAECO is up 40% on that basis. At the Cathay Pacific Airways level, which is the big number there, it is up 1%, which is the continued strong performance of Cathay Pacific over the last three years. You can see there that Cathay yesterday at their announcement described their performance as solid, driven by increasing passenger volumes, a very consistent cargo performance, and a lower fuel price. You'll see the liquidity there, HKD 11.2 billion in operating cash flow, maintains their gearing at healthy levels of 0.87. Covenants are up at 2, healthier in that sense. They continue to add more passenger flights. They've got 87 new planes on order, and they announced yesterday the 14 new Boeing 777-9s.
The new destinations are on the slide. As they've grown their ASK, passenger revenue was up 14%, ASK up 26%, yield was down 12%. With more ASK putting pressure on the yield. With cargo, the cargo capacity grew, particularly on the passenger bellies. 50% of the cargo is carried on the passenger bellies. The cargo was up 8.1% and yields marginally down by 3%. The outlook, again, the demand in the three really strong years, the second half, we expect it to continue to be relatively strong. The passenger demand is robust. The cargo side is slightly uncertain. Yields continue to normalize, but there is still capacity growing in that sense. The outlook for the second half will be pretty solid. At HAECO, they had a strong year, a lot more base maintenance man hours, and a strong demand for engine overhaul at HAECO and HAECO Engine Services in Xiamen.
Their main business is performing very well. We expect that to continue into the second half. Finally, just touch on healthcare. As I mentioned at the press briefing, this is very early stages of our development. There are two of those investments that we actually manage, which is Delta Health. The exciting news with Delta Health, this is one where we now manage. We're learning a lot through that. Becoming a Class III standard cardiovascular specialty hospital is a huge step forward. Our cardiology lags our cardiac operations, which should be in the reverse side. Being Class C allows much more patient referrals, BMI reimbursements, and it really enhances the reputation of the hospital. We expect this to be a significant change in the fortunes of Delta Health. Our business in Indonesia continues to be profitable. We've just opened the Bali International Hospital.
If you want to do your health check quality in Bali, then it's now newly opened. Pass back to you, Chairman, for the outlook.
Thank you. Finally, in terms of outlook, we expect the uncertainty across our core markets that we've mentioned for the first half to most likely continue in the second. In terms of Hong Kong office, you'll continue to see this flight to quality trend. We hope and expect that the retail performance will remain relatively resilient in the second half. The retail market is expected to gradually gain pace in the Chinese mainland, but office occupancy will be impacted by oversupply in that market. On the beverage side, again, there'll be some subdued domestic spending, I think, in the Chinese mainland, which will present some challenges to revenue growth. Deteriorating economic conditions, reduced tourism activity, and the implementation of a sugar tax are expected to adversely affect the Thailand business in the second half.
On aviation, we think travel demand will remain robust, while the market environment for cargo remains somewhat uncertain given the current sort of tariff issues out there. On HAECO, I expect a stable demand for base maintenance and continuing growth of line maintenance work and stable demand for engine overhaul services. They should end up having a fairly good year. With that, we can take questions.
Let's do that. Let's take questions. Shall we ask for questions to include name and organization? May we have your question in English with no more than two questions at a time? Please await my cue and our staff will pass you a microphone. Any questions, please? Yes, gentleman in front. Can we have a microphone, Samantha? Over here in front, first row.
Thank you, management. My name is Fan from Bank of America. I have two questions, if I may. First one on the beverage. I saw that in the first half, we still achieved some ASP growth in mainland China, which is quite impressive given the pretty competitive environment and somewhat deflationary market. Can you elaborate more on what actually you have done? In the outlook slide, you mentioned you are still quite conservative about the outlook in China. Can I get a more, I mean, direction? Do you expect ASP to still achieve positive growth for the rest of the year, or are you expecting the trend to deteriorate? Also, on Southeast Asia, I understand that it's pretty challenging. When should we expect a turnaround? My second question is on the share buyback, if you can provide more color about whether we will resume that. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you for the question. Our business in the Chinese mainland remains strong. We grew our revenue by 3% and profit by 8%. This is largely due to our initiative in pricing activities. Although the pace of our pricing activity is slower than what we want it to be, we continue our effort in pricing. In the first half, we achieved a positive sparkling two-way growth by 2.7%, and our juice category increased by 1.5%. I think this is the main driver in driving our revenue and also our profit growth. In collaboration with The Coca-Cola Company, we maintain a very healthy and balanced product portfolio. At the same time, we remain our organization to be very agile in order to capture the new consumer trend and further diversifying our package by channel and continue to invest in cold drink equipment to capture the consumer consumption.
I think these are all the very important long-term strategic initiatives to help us to continue to grow in a market environment where consumer demand is subdued. We'll continue that effort in the second half of the year.
Yeah, on the share buyback program, we completed our second program, HKD 6 billion of which HKD 5.98 billion was exercised. We got that kind of right on that sense. It's always seen as a very short-term solution on that bit. We've always stressed that in terms of priority, we always look at our long-term strategic investments first. We're much more focused on the progressive dividend. Again, the share buyback is an option to us that we consider. When we consider it, we look at the current share price, the gearing, the credit matrix, and if we're holding any price-sensitive information, we can exercise one too. It's something that we've followed. We've learned a lot in the last two programs, and it's something that's still there and part of our armory of what we want to do. Again, in terms of the shareholding return, very much focused on the progressive dividend.
Thank you. Any next question? Yes, gentleman in front in the red tie. Thank you, Ellen.
Thank you, management. This is John Lam from UBS. I have two questions. The first one probably is for Guy. It's more for a strategic type of questions. How do we look at Swire Pacific if we think about in the next, let's say, three to five years? Is there any metrics that we focus? I see that actually in the PowerPoint slide, there is an appendix regarding ROE. Should we also think about improving the ROE from this perspective? If yes, anything that we could do to improve the ROE here? The second one is about, apart from the current portfolio, I'm not sure if you're happy with the current business portfolio. Any new business that you're looking for for the investment? That's for my question. Thank you.
In the next three to five years, the core divisions that we have have all got a very exciting pipeline program of investments, most of which have been disclosed. The pipeline is just that. We also have investments that haven't yet been disclosed that we're working on, perhaps because the deals haven't been consummated. Certainly, in terms of aviation, you've seen Cathay continue to place very heavy investments in fleet growth. On the property side, again, you've heard the tremendous pipeline growth that we're putting Swire Properties through and all the construction that's going on in the Chinese mainland. We expect that to continue, and new projects will be emerging over the next three to five years on the real estate side. Probably more likely to see them in Chinese mainland and possibly Southeast Asia, I would say, in the near term.
We continue in Hong Kong to focus on the two clusters of assets in Taikoo Place and Pacific Place, and those two areas and locations will continue to provide land bank for the future growth. There's a good story going on in the property side. We're about to release trading projects onto the markets over the next three to five years. There'll be some trading income coming through there. In the healthcare space, you know it's an early start for us. We've set ourselves a 10-year vision, and we've invested $3 billion so far of the $10 billion , $20 billion that we've sort of allocated loosely towards this. The reason we want to start slow is that we have a learning curve here, and we've made some good investments so far, I think, in Indonesia, which is a profitable investment, which we're very excited about.
In this Delta Heart Hospital in Shanghai, we're focused very much on those two investments at this point before we go any further. We feel that there are opportunities to grow, especially in the Chinese mainland, but the current valuations are too high. We're happy to wait for valuations to look a bit more realistic. In the meantime, focus on getting Delta and the Indonesian business into shape.
Thank you. Any next question? Wonderful. I guess that's a wrap. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you for attending, and have a great evening.