Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels 2022 annual results video webcast. My name is Aiden, General Manager, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations for the company. The result announcements were posted on the stock exchange website earlier this afternoon. Our presentation will begin by our Senior Management team, followed by the Q&A session. You are welcome to submit your questions at any point of time during the presentation by pressing the Raise Your Hand button on the top right corner of the screen. Today, we are pleased to welcome the following speakers: Mr. Clement Kwok, Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Borer, Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Christopher Ip, Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Shirley Lam, Group Director of Properties. We would now like to invite our CEO, Mr. Clement Kwok, to begin our presentation.
Thanks, Aiden hi and good afternoon everybody. Let me start by saying that I do hope our next one will be a physical one because I would welcome seeing many of you again. I haven't seen you for a long time, it would be lovely if you could come to our office next time. Okay. In terms of the presentation, may we go to the first slide, please? I would like to start by rewinding about four years, because a lot has happened during that time. At the beginning of 2019, our company had a robust balance sheet with a net debt of only about HKD 6 billion, as compared to assets of around HKD 52 billion.
We had an annual group EBITDA of around HKD 1.7 billion, and we had entered into the commitments for delivering The Peninsula London, The Peninsula Istanbul, and Yangon, as well as the revitalization of the Peak Tram. Of course, a lot has happened in the last four years. Our cash flows have been seriously affected by COVID. Actually, let's not forget, we had a social unrest in our home market of Hong Kong in 2019. We took a pretty bad hit from, on that as well. Generally our businesses in Greater China and Asia were very badly hit by COVID.
At the same time as our cash flows were so badly affected, we were spending a lot of money on our new projects, especially in London, where it was an expensive project anyway, but I think you are aware, and we'll talk a little bit more about this, where the costs, the budget has further increased. It's been challenging over this four year period, but given the unprecedented circumstances which I have gone through, I feel pretty proud that I think we've navigated the challenges well, and we have a stable financial position as of today.
Although our net group borrowings have increased to around HKD 15 billion, our gearing ratio is at a reasonable level of 26%, and this will come down significantly when we collect the proceeds of the London, Peninsula London Residences sales on which many contracts have already been exchanged. We continue to maintain a healthy, committed financing horizon to cover our costs. We have to cover our upcoming cash needs, we have managed our costs carefully, and we've maintained our brand and our service standards. With all of this, our group Operating EBITDA for last year, and in this we have excluded the one-off pre-opening and project expenses related to the London and Istanbul projects, which are non-recurring.
Exclusive of that number, our EBITDA has improved from HKD 457 million the year before to HKD 518 million for the year just passed. Some very notable highlights in 2022. The first was the opening of the new Peak Tram, fully expanded with new tram cars, a much better experience, new stations, new access escalators, new entertainment options. It's a completely new experience, the opening of that, I think was a big moment for us. At the moment, we're still waiting for more tourists to return, we have no doubt that that is a facility that will be attractive for tourists and locals for a long time to come. Another big highlight was that we have soft opened The Peninsula Istanbul. That happened on the 14th of February of this year.
Unfortunately, the earthquake took place just before that, but nevertheless, this is a magnificent hotel that we're very proud of. Again, we have no doubt that this is a fantastic hotel to add to our portfolio. I'll talk a bit more about that later, and I will also give you a further update on The Peninsula London later. Before then, let's cover our financials and an operating update, and I will pass to Chris.
Thank you, Clement j ust to go over some of the 2022 highlights again. In 2022, the group reported better results amid the difficult market situation we faced in Hong Kong and also in mainland China. Revenue increased by 21% to HKD 4.2 billion, and EBITDA before pre-opening and project expenses increased by 13% to HKD 518 million. Our net operating cash flow, which is cash flow after tax, changes in working capital, normal CapEx, net interest and lease expenses before pre-opening and project expenses improved by 19% to HKD 82 million. The group had HKD 3.6 billion of unused facilities with over HKD 5 billion in contracts exchanged from pre-sold Peninsula London apartments, which will lower our gearing ratio.
As mentioned earlier, the Peak Tram reopened in August of last year, and the Peninsula Istanbul soft opening was held in February of 2023. The soft opening for Peninsula London is expected to be in late 2023. The group's consolidated revenue improvement was mainly driven by the hotels division. Rooms revenue increased by 59%, while F&B increased by 31%, resulting in the overall increase in hotel revenue to be 32% contributed by the rebound in the U.S. and other Asian countries. Except for Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Manila, all of our hotels reached record rates last year. Our overall hotel consolidated EBITDA increased by HKD 100 million year-over-year. A significant increase considering business in other Asian countries only started recovering in the first half of last year.
In Hong Kong and Mainland China, they continued to suffer from stringent COVID restrictions for much of the year. Our portfolio in our commercial properties remained resilient with rental income flat at around HKD 1.2 billion. Rental income from arcades remained strong, although partially offset by the softer rental market in the luxury residential sector. The majority of our arcade business achieved occupancy of over 90%, while resi units in Repulse Bay fell by about 2%. We expect that Peak Tower will provide more rental income in 2023 following the opening of the Peak Tram last year. Our office rental income remained stable. In 2022, we achieved a 3% Revenue Growth with our clubs and services division.
Revenue for merchandising was impacted due to softer exports into China and slower revenue in Hong Kong, overall, results were boosted by the Peak Tram and Quail. Our mainland Chinese merchandising business will be expanding this year with new retail boutiques and online sales channels. Looking at the financial results, revenues for 2022 again increased by 21% to HKD 4.2 billion. The group managed to limit an increase in operating costs to 23%, excluding pre-opening and project costs under a high inflation environment. As a result of these efforts, EBITDA before the pre-opening and project expenses turned positive to HKD 518 million, an improvement of HKD 61 million compared to last year.
Pre-opening and project expenses, which are for the London project, increased by HKD 56 million to HKD 119 million, bringing EBITDA to HKD 399 million. Our operating losses reduced by a half to HKD 53 million. Our net financing charges increased with a higher weighted average gross interest rate of around 2.15%. In the second half of 2022, the price of luxury residential and retail properties dropped due to the outbreak of the 5th wave of COVID in Hong Kong, coupled with interest rate hikes. The group holds significant investment properties in Hong Kong. As a result, the fair value investment of properties fell by HKD 152 million, which only represents less than half a percent of our total portfolio.
In total, the group had an attributable loss to shareholders of HKD 488 million, and excluding non-operating items, our underlying loss was at HKD 205 million. Cash flow summary. Net cash generated from operations for the period amounted to HKD 82 million after taking into account tax payments, changes in working capital, normal CapEx, and net interest and lease payments. During the year, we have HKD 2.2 billion in CapEx for the Peninsula London and close to HKD 300 million as a capital injection into our Istanbul project. CapEx for the Peak Tram totaled about HKD 161 million, and we don't expect significant additional costs.
Pre-opening and project expenses was HKD 119 million, and the interest expense for these projects were HKD 196 million. Cash outflow for the year was HKD 2.8 billion. Lastly, onto our balance sheet. You'll see that our net borrowings increased by approximately HKD 1.7 billion to HKD 14.6 billion, with an average duration of 2.2 years. The weighted average gross interest rate was 2.15%, as mentioned earlier, which is only 65 basis points higher from last year as a result of our hedging strategy. Net debt to total assets was 26%, and available liquidity totaled HKD 3.6 billion. We are committed to green financing, and last year, we refinanced a loan with a HKD 670 million facility with nine banks.
Over a third of our facilities were classified as green, while 20% were classified as sustainability-linked loans with KPIs linked to energy intensity and waste diversion rates. We continue to monitor our overall debt and cash flow positions and remain prudent with ample financial headroom. I will now hand over to Peter for operations.
Thank you, Chris Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. For most of 2022, The Peninsula Hong Kong continued to be negatively impacted by the stringent travel restrictions, quarantine, and social distancing measures imposed by the Hong Kong government. Although occupancy declined compared to the previous year, we were able to achieve a double-digit increase in average rates. Food and beverage revenue was robust throughout the year. Once dining restrictions were eased, from May onwards, we saw a strong rebound in previously canceled events, banquets, and weddings. We expect that the hospitality industry in Hong Kong will continue to improve with the easing of inbound travel restrictions, especially from the Chinese mainland, although long-haul markets will require a little longer to recover. On the leasing side, The Peninsula office tower was 94% occupied in 2022, and the outlook is stable. The Peninsula Arcade occupancy was 92%.
Peninsula Shanghai faced a challenging 2022 due to the stringent COVID restrictions imposed across the city. Despite the weak environment, we remained RevPAR leader amongst our competitive set. We experienced a serious deterioration in business for 2022 as various lockdowns commenced and government regulations mandated the hotel to close our restaurants. However, we are pleased to see during the festive season, year-end parties and events resumed when the zero-COVID restrictions were eased. The Peninsula Arcade was 94% occupied during 2022, and aside from the lockdown periods, the retail outlets experienced robust foot traffic. The Peninsula Beijing experienced an extremely challenging year, again, due to the severe government restrictions and lockdowns, with lengthy quarantines resulting in almost zero international travels arriving in Beijing. During the year, the Peninsula Arcade was 98% occupied and business in the retail outlets was robust.
Some of our anchor tenants are undergoing expansion of their spaces. We are optimistic for the outlook for the coming year, as we believe luxury travel in China will rebound. The Peninsula Tokyo ended the year on a higher note after a relatively weak start to 2022, when the hotel was still impacted by the state of emergency restrictions which are imposed across the city. The gradual easing of restrictions resulted in a significant increase in occupancy, revenue, and room rates, such that we achieved record high average room rates. In terms of local guest demand, we were pleased to see the number of general banquets and large events increasing significantly in the second half due to pent-up demand. The Peninsula Bangkok experienced a strong second half, mainly due to the removal of all government restrictions from July onwards and the removal of mask mandates from October.
This encouraged international travelers to return to Thailand with the key markets, including the United States, Europe, South Korea, and Singapore. Rooms, food and beverage, and banqueting business picked up gradually throughout the year, and December was particularly strong. The Peninsula Manila experienced a strong year after a relatively weak first two months. Occupancy, average rates, and RevPAR all increased significantly after the Philippines government opened international borders from February onwards. Guests returned from our traditional key markets of the U.S., U.K., Singapore, Japan, South Korea, with diplomatic and corporate business particularly strong following the election of the country's new president in June of 2022. Suite business was good, and our new club lounge brought significant revenue. Food and beverage performance was robust.
The Peninsula New York experienced a fast recovery and strong rebound for the full year of 2022 after a first slow start in the first two months of the year. The hotel achieved a very high average rate since opening with strong demand for specialty suites. Food and beverage revenue correlated with RevPAR and performed well. Our outlook is positive with a high rates forecast. The Peninsula Chicago enjoyed a very strong 2022 with high occupancy and average rates, and we maintained our RevPAR leader position in the market. Business was boosted by strong demand for suites and increased banqueting demand from March onwards. Group business was good. Several large-scale conferences and conventions were held in the city. Peninsula Beverly Hills enjoyed a successful 2022 with very high average rates.
A good mix of business and leisure travel helps us to push rates with robust demand for suites and high-end products. Food and beverage performed very well throughout the year. Banqueting and catering demand was strong due to many events being reorganized after being canceled during the pandemic. The Peninsula Paris experienced a difficult start to the year. From March 2022 onwards, the French government lifted all restrictions and business rebound. There was a high demand for suites and family travel, leading to the hotel achieving very high occupancy and average rates. I will now hand to Shirley to discuss our commercial properties and clubs and services division.
Thank you, Peter t he Repulse Bay complex experienced a softer market, with overall resident revenue and occupancy declining due to the lack of international travel. The performance of Repulse Bay F&B outlets affected by government social distancing measures. Catering revenue picked it up in the second half when large event and banquet could be held again. The Repulse Bay shopping arcade, which offer a diverse range of lifestyle amenity and services, reported lower occupancy and revenue due to the challenging environment. Our long term outlook remains positive with the lifting of restriction for inbound travelers. The Peak Tower experienced an improvement in business compared to previous year, although remains significantly impacted by the continued lack of foreign visitor to Hong Kong and the suspension of the Peak Tram. Revenue and occupancy improved slightly, boosted by the reopening of the Peak Tram in August and increased visitors to Sky Terrace.
St. John’s Building was 92% occupied, and revenue remained relatively stable. The Landmark Vietnam reported positive performance with revenue and occupancy for the office and service residents improving year-on-year. For 21 avenue Kléber, we have successfully leased the entire office space and both of the two retail spaces. Rental revenue improved by 4% compared to previous year in local currency. The biggest story of the year in our clubs and services division was the launch of the new Peak Tram. Overall, revenue of the Peak Tram increased 112%. This was a special moment in the history of Hong Kong with the launch of a new Peak Tram, 6th generation Peak Tram in August. A HKD 799 million upgrade project. We invested so much in this project as a reflection of a belief in Hong Kong.
You may recall the long queues before COVID. The upgrade aims to offer more enjoyable and comfortable experiences for visitors. We are confident they will return now that border are fully reopened. We have introduced brand new tram cars manufactured in Switzerland that can carry 210 passengers, doubling the previous capacities. We also replaced all signaling system, added new roofs, track rails, and completely transformed the Central and Peak Terminus. The Central Terminus has been extended to provide new arrival and waiting area for up to 1,300 people, as well as new audio visuals, entertainment area, and display. A new historical gallery and video display are introduced. The platforms and tram car floor levels has been aligned to provide enhanced step-free access for people with disability.
We also commissioned a bespoke artwork called The Eye of Infinity by Australian artist Lindy Lee at the entrance of the Central Terminus. Since reopening, the new Peak Tram has been very well received by the local patrons. We are very optimistic for the year ahead when international visitors start to return to Hong Kong. I'll now hand over to Peter.
Thank you, Shirley. Revenue at Peninsula Merchandising decreased compared to the previous years, mainly due to slower mooncake sales. The division is expanding in several markets, including the Chinese Mainland, and will start to directly operate retail boutiques and online sales channels. Quail Lodge & Golf Club reported excellent revenue, increasing by 18% year-over-year, and a significant increase in average rate and RevPAR compared to pre-COVID levels. Golf membership was strong with 44 new memberships signed in 2022. The Quail, a Motorsports Gathering, was held in August 2022. This is considered one of the world's leading concourse events for classic motoring aficionados and brings significant sponsorship revenue. Now I will hand back to Clement to talk to you about our development projects and company outlook.
Thanks, Peter. If I first go to London, I think all of you know that we have an exceptional, a truly exceptional location in London, which is at the gateway to Belgravia, overlooking Hyde Park Corner, the Wellington Arch, Green Park, and the gardens of Buckingham Palace. We are developing a hotel which will have 190 rooms, of course, with a very substantial public areas, ballrooms, spas, and so on. In addition, we have 25 luxury Peninsula branded residential apartments for sale, which are integrated into the same building, which you can see in the photo there. I've reported before that since the original agreements were signed in 2013, we've encountered many challenges and changes. The project has been affected by delays and cost overruns, as well as significant design and project coordination issues arising in key areas of the hotels.
Throughout these challenges, our own HSH projects team has worked closely with the London development team, the construction management company, the consultants, and the trade contractors to try and resolve and address the problems as quickly and effectively as possible. Despite all of this, we've encountered further delays and cost overruns. The practical completion date of the project will now be later in 2023, and therefore the soft opening will be later in 2023. We announced in October 2022 a further increased revised budget of The Peninsula London at about GBP 1 billion, which includes the cost of both the hotel and the residential apartments. Luckily, prices at which we have exchanged contracts for over 2/3 of the apartments have been in line and with our original expectations. Certainly very healthy prices there. I'd like to show you a few photos.
This photo here is the courtyard. One drives into the center of the building into this courtyard. As you can see, beautifully decorated in terms of landscape, with two big Japanese maple trees. one side of this courtyard is an entrance to the lobby, and the other side is the entrance to the ballroom and the Chinese restaurant. The hotel was designed by a world-acclaimed interior designer, Peter Marino. You can see here the design of this lobby, which is extremely grand. I think maybe we should have put some people in this photo to show this tremendous ceiling height in the lobby. It is a very grand space, which we believe also reflects a sort of British style. It reflects the Belgravia neighborhood of which we are part.
The guest rooms, also designed by Peter Marino, we believe this is a blend of Peninsula style together with Peter Marino's signature design. As you can see, there are some beautiful materials, a number of eclectic materials, woods and so on being used in this bedroom. The bathroom for The Peninsula London, you can see here, the material being used is not marble, it is onyx, which is an even more high quality and expensive material than marble. All of the guest rooms have this dressing room that you can put your luggage, hang your clothes, and with a dressing table as well. There's a standard feature in The Peninsula London, as indeed in many of the Peninsula hotels in our rooms.
They're not just the suites, but even in the, in the normal rooms. We have a beautifully designed Chinese restaurant, and in fact, we will show more images of this in due course because the different areas have different designs. It's very elaborate, and this will be serving Cantonese cuisine. Here's another image of the Peninsula Cafe and Boutique. And I think you will know that Peninsula values its connections with the local community, not only for visitors from local and overseas who are staying in the rooms, but also people who might walk past the building, go in to buy something from the Peninsula Boutique or to have a more casual meal.
Indeed, we have this in a number of our Peninsula hotels, including Hong Kong, we have such a boutique and café. If I go on to Istanbul, the first thing I wanted to show you was the amazing location. For those of you who know Istanbul, you will recognize the old town of Istanbul, where you have the Topkapi Palace, the bazaar, and the two structures you see here are the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. Obviously the hotel is where we put a white box around the photo, where you can see that the hotel is on the Bosphorus, on the shores overlooking the old town. In the further distance, you can see the business center of Istanbul. We're well located with access to both.
In particular, that view overlooking the old town is very special. I think again, people will be aware that The Peninsula Istanbul forms part of the wider Galataport Project. The Galataport Project is actually a very wide promenade, you know, next to the hotel, but going on for quite a distance, including museums, art galleries, restaurants, boutiques, retail units and so on. Actually, the Galataport area has been open for a while now, and the area enjoys very, very high foot traffic from locals and visitors. An important point here is that the entire Galataport project was granted under a 30-year fixed term lease. That applies to the whole area, including our hotel. That has been extended now from 30 years to 49 years, 49 years from the original date of 2014.
We're just finalizing our share of the terms of that extension with our local partners. As mentioned earlier, the hotel was soft opened, unfortunately, right after the earthquake. Nevertheless, we are sure that momentum will build up quite quickly because we have magnificent spaces here. If you just dwell on this photo for a moment, you can see the three heritage buildings. The one on the left is a heritage building. The second one was the old cruise terminal, a very distinctive building. The third one is a heritage building. Much more low-key is the ballroom building going after that. You can see in front of these buildings, this whole area is beautiful landscape. It is like a garden on the shores of the Bosphorus.
If I give you a glimpse of some of the areas of the hotel, this is our main lobby, which was the arrivals hall of the cruise terminal. Cruise ships would come in, and the passengers would come here. You can see our lobby has retained this rather quirky look of the cruise terminal, but now is a full Peninsula lobby offering all-day F&B, very high ceilings, and those big windows then look over onto the Bosphorus. The rooms have been designed. Again, you can see the views overlooking the Bosphorus, but with a touch of Turkish and a touch of Peninsula. The dressing room, again, I hope this will evoke in you a feeling of Turkishness, which is what we designed. The bathroom. You can see from beautiful Turkish marble and some mother-of-pearl insets into the marble as well.
A beautiful indoor swimming pool. We'll also have an outdoor infinity pool. Finally, the entrance to the ballroom. You can see all of the beautiful landscape and plantings. In fact, we will have beautiful pre-function areas which are outdoors but with big umbrellas protecting people from the weather. I hope these photos will make you feel excited and that you would want to go and visit that hotel. A quick word on corporate social responsibility. You will be aware that we have put together our Sustainable Luxury Vision 2030, which we continue to pursue under the pillars of guest experience, people, and communities. Underneath that vision are 10 key commitments, and we're making good progress on delivering on those commitments.
We're also looking at, for instance, Net carbon neutral, and we're exploring issues such as that. We are, I think, making good progress, and there is a full corporate social responsibility report contained in our annual report. In terms of outlook, and this is our final slide, the big theme, I believe, for us, because the bulk of our assets, certainly in terms of earnings, are located in Hong Kong. Usually our Hong Kong properties and businesses contribute the majority of our group's earnings. Clearly the relaxation of the COVID restrictions and the mask-wearing restrictions in Hong Kong is the most important fact I wish to highlight in our outlook paragraph.
With that recovery in Hong Kong, we expect that to benefit the hotels business, rooms business, F&B business, our residential leasing income at the Repulse Bay, our Peak Tram and Peak Tower revenue. Across the board, we are hoping that we will see a good recovery. We certainly believe that Hong Kong remains a very attractive destination for both business and leisure travelers. Also very important to us, the Chinese mainland and the relaxation of COVID restrictions in Chinese mainland is also important for our hotels in Beijing and Shanghai, and we're already seeing some return of international business in those places. Elsewhere, the places where we're enjoying the very high room rates are in Tokyo, Paris, New York, Chicago, and Beverly Hills. The outlook for these continues to be good, although we are seeing inflationary wage pre-pressures in various markets around the world.
Istanbul is now open, as we said earlier. In the immediate future, obviously we are affected by the earthquakes in Tokyo, which has depressed business for the time being. Our greatest priority is to deliver the hotel in London, to finish it as best as we can, as quickly as we can, whilst holding the budget as much as possible. We believe that when that hotel is opened, together with our hotels in Paris and Istanbul, that will form a powerful presence in Europe. We do point out that there are still a lot of uncertainties around in the world that might affect us, from geopolitical tensions, Brexit, financial market concerns in Turkey. Longer term, we're watching climate change issues. There are labor shortage issues as well.
Of course, we operate in international markets where there are always risks that have to be managed. As I said in answer to a question in the press conference earlier today, we can't foresee everything. What we have to do is to maintain a prudent financial position to give us a buffer against the unexpected, which we have, I believe, done. We've maintained this strong balance sheet. We have managed our costs during this time. We've maintained our Liquidity Position. Most of all, people, that is the most important. We are fortunate to have retained and kept together a highly motivated and dedicated management team, together with all our staff around the world who have amazing commitment and dedication. Because of that, I do believe that we have a bright future to look forward to.
Thank you very much. I'm happy, and my team and my colleagues and I are happy to take any questions from you.
Thank you, Clement. Question number one. What is our performance looking like for, especially for The Peninsula Hong Kong following the relaxation of uplift of the face mask policy?
We're seeing some recovery. We're seeing room rates come up. We're starting to see some international business. The relaxation has been only very recent. Whilst we're encouraged by some pickup, you know, we still have a long way to go to go back to our normal levels.
I may add to that, I think it's very important that Hong Kong's international airport increases its capacity and its handling capacity as quickly as possible, because we know that many international airlines are not yet putting on large planes and increasing flights because we simply are not able to handle them. It's very, very important for Hong Kong's airport to get into a faster recovery program.
Thank you. Question number two. Expat trade community seems to be shrinking. Are we concerned about the medium, long-term rental outlook as well as our capital values?
What we've seen over the years is maybe some changes in the profile of the expatriate community in Hong Kong. The most relevant there for us is the residential rentals at The Repulse Bay. What we have found is that there is a healthy demand for those properties still from people coming to Hong Kong to work from China, for instance. There are some very highly qualified, if you like, expatriates from the PRC. Actually, we're starting to get some inquiries coming back from some foreign executives coming from foreign markets as well. My own belief is that if Hong Kong continues to offer good career and money-making opportunities as it has done, let us remind ourselves, for a long, long time, then I believe that demand will come back.
Thank you. How is the company managing inflation and especially labor shortage?
I think the most, as has been indicated, the most relevant point here is wage inflation. Clearly, we are a very good employer, and we seek to pay appropriate amounts for our very dedicated staff, and we want to have a remuneration policy that will, you know, have good staff retention, and we're very proud of the longevity of our staff and, we have many, many stories of long service. The first thing to say is that in an inflationary labor environment, then we're looking to at least be in line with market and to remain attractive in terms of financial compensation for our employees. Given that situation, what can you do about that to maintain your margins?
Obviously, one is to utilize that labor in as efficient a way as possible. We are often looking at how to increase that, you know, efficiency. In some cases, you may have some colleagues who are learning to multitask, and looking at how you can make some of the departments and so on more, you know, more efficient. The other, of course, is to drive your revenue. In theory, with inflation and labor rates, there should be inflation in your revenue, in your room rates as well. The key here is to maintain and further enhance a product that people want. The only way in which you can maintain that Revenue Growth is by improving your product and your services so that there is demand for such services. That, of course, is what everybody tries to do. We're no different.
This is where we're trying to maintain our margins, by offering as good, the products as we can.
Thank you. Next question. How are our pre-booking rates comparing to the pre-COVID level? Do we see a different trend compared to any pre-booking rates or the pre-booking scenario?
What we're experiencing is that the booking window is becoming even shorter than it was pre-COVID. The consumer is deciding virtually on the spot whether to travel or not. We are gearing up our reservation systems and our teams to be even, you know, faster than we were prior to the crisis. What we're seeing, however, also on a positive note, is a consumer who is willing to spend more because a lot of their demands are now also, sort of circling around more hygiene standards, more safety standards, and people are taking that even more, seriously than before. Overall, the behavior hasn't changed much, but there is a willingness to pay more, but we have to deliver faster.
Okay. Is the company looking to make any more large investments post completion of London and Istanbul? What are really the next steps for the company?
The first priority is to manage the debt that we've taken on. As we've said, we expect that debt to reduce with the realization of the proceeds from the sale of Peninsula London apartments. Still, we have to look at the overall balance sheet, and that is the number one priority. The priority after that is that we've been through a difficult period with COVID and so on, where we have not been able to pay as much attention as we normally do to our existing properties and assets. You know, we've been working on the new projects and our financial position has, you know, we've been cutting expenditure during this time. We believe our priority is to address our existing assets and properties much more than looking for any new developments at this stage.
We do believe that there is significant value creating potential in our existing assets. Those are the assets we know the best, and by focusing on them and working out what to do with those assets, we think that we will have, if you like, an investment case for that investment to be put into existing assets.
Okay. One final question. What is our rough timeline to recognize the sales proceeds of the Peninsula London residential apartments?
Well, quite a few of the deals, we'll be able to recognize the proceeds once we get effectively the occupation permit. When we reach what we call practical completion and the testing and commissioning is done, we will be in a position to be, you know, in that position effectively to get the OP. That we are still targeting for later in this year. At the moment, we have not announced a precise date.
Thank you. That's pretty much it for all the questions. Thank you, everyone, for attending this presentation. If you have any further questions, please write to our investor relations mailbox. Our slides will be made available for download on our website today. This concludes our 2022 annual results presentation. Thank you.