Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining NWS Holdings Financial Year 2022 interim results analyst presentation. I'm Catherine, today's MC. First of all, let me introduce our panel members. Mr. Gilbert Ho, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Jim Lam, our Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Ben Wong, Director of Corporate Development Investment and Investor Relations. For today's agenda, Gilbert will first walk you through the key highlights of our company's results and strategy. After this, Jim will present to you the financial highlights, and then Ben will cover the performance of individual business segment, and then followed by the Q&A session. If you have any questions, please enter your questions into the text box on the left-hand side of the screen. Without further ado, let me hand over to Gilbert. Gilbert, please.
Thank you, Catherine. Thank you, everyone. First of all, I would like to give you a brief overview of our business. For the last few years, our company has gone through a portfolio optimizations. As you'll remember, we have done a number of key disposals with a total considerations of around HKD 20 billion. At the same time, we have done a number of key acquisitions of around HKD 30 billion. After this portfolio optimizations, we have a lot of capital on our hand for further growth. Our earnings growth is more visible and has more quality. We are very well-positioned to deploy more capital for further growth.
We also have done a number of actions to improve shareholders' return and to optimize our capital structure, which include adopting a sustainable and progressive dividend policy, redemption of senior notes, and early repayment of bank notes using our excess cash. We also uphold a very strong risk management practice to optimize risk and return for our shareholders. With the three segments of the disposals, including environment, logistics and transport, you can actually see our disposals has gone through a very careful considerations. All three segments have very similar characteristics, with growth trending down over the last few years, and also we see little visibility of the earnings in the coming years. At the same time, we are not disposing these assets at low valuations. We actually dispose all these at premium valuations against market competitors.
In our business, we're going to have our growth strategies in different segments. First of all, in our roads, we can see steady growth of over 5% over the last 3 years, especially in the central regions of the new roads that we acquired, the AOP actually increased by 5%. For constructions, we see solid demands from private developers and institutions, and also more new government contracts coming along together with the Northern Metropolis, which is going to support the medium to long-term supply of projects. For our insurance, with the new products as well as expansion of the distribution channel, we are confident that it pose a very healthy organic growth coming along. In the logistics sector, which is actually a very resilient business, even with growth during COVID period.
ATL continues to deliver a very strong result with over 99% occupancy rate. CUIRC in China, which actually with a very solid growth together with its ancillary logistics services. For our facility management, our hospitals continue to ramp up with EBITDA break even since 2021 and has continued to grow together with the outpatients and inpatient growth. For HKCEC and Free Duty, although it is impacted by the COVID during this period, we can actually see a strong rebound that will come along together with the border reopening. Together with the organic growth, we also will continue the inorganic growth for different segments. For our road segments, we'll continue to look for new acquisitions. In fact, after the three acquisitions over the last few years, our average remaining concession period increased by 2.4 years.
For construction, in addition to the traditional projects that we have been doing before, we will also look for civil-related projects, which we've managed at risk, such as piling work, ground investigation works and site formation, which is our core competence. For insurance, we will apply for the mainland license. For logistics, as we mentioned before, we have been looking for different acquisitions. In fact, over the last years, we have done two major acquisitions in ANE Logistics as well as Worldex. We aim to build an ecosystem within our logistics segment. For facility management, for GHK, our hospitals, we will also look for new business initiatives such as management contracts for clinics. For HKCEC, we will also partner with local brands to broaden our F&B choices to boost branding and ancillary revenues.
For FREE DUTY, we have new businesses such as pop-up stores as well as our online sales. Going into our results, you can see our recurring business is actually very resilient. Excluding our strategic investment, our recurring business AOP in fact increased by 5%. Our quality assets with sustainable recurring cash flow and growth potentials, including our roads, ATL, our construction segments, Gleneagles, as well as our insurance, all with different characteristics to generate fair recurring income stream and cash flow, as well as strong growth prospect. Over the last few years, we have delivered a very solid balance sheet as well as dividend growth. As I remember, over the last few years, one might question about our gearing ratios after the acquisition of FTLife, which was 31%, which we lowered to now 13% within less than 2.5 years.
This actually demonstrate our very strong cash flow within all this business, even during this very difficult economic period. In terms of the asset value, you can see after the revaluations of ATL, which we have done this year, which increased to HKD 7.3 billion upon re-classifications. Our total NAV is actually 774.4 billion now, which you can see is actually trading a very deep discount to our NAV. With our market cap is only around HKD 30 billion. As I also mentioned, we have adopted a sustainable and progressive dividend policies since 2019, and we have continued to deliver our value to our shareholders with our increase in DPS in last financial period and also as well as this period, which we increased our dividend by 3.4%.
I will hand over to Jim, our CFO, to highlight to you some of our financial information.
Thank you, Gilbert. Financial highlights. In the current period, our revenue increased by 15% year-on-year to HKD 16.3 billion. The growth was driven mainly by the increase in our insurance business revenue, which was up about 49%. The construction segment revenue was relatively stable, rather the roads declined by about 10% year-on-year. Moving on to the attributable operating profit or AOP. During the period, our overall AOP declined by 30% to HKD 2.3 billion. As mentioned by Gilbert just now, if you just look at the AOP of our recurring businesses, which exclude the disposed or asset held for sale, and the strategic investment segment, which we think offer a better year-on-year comparison, the AOP actually up 5% year-on-year.
The core business AOP was down 8% rather for the strategic portfolio, was down 82%. During the period, there was a substantial reduction in the non-operating losses to just HKD 76 million, which represent provision impairment of about HKD 289 million, mainly related to Goshawk, which is offset by a net disposal gain from a disposal of SUEZ NWS and Xiamen Container Terminal Group of HKD 213 million. Last year, we had a very large non-operating loss of HKD 1.97 billion, and this represented mainly the re-measurement loss of HKD 1.33 billion on our Wai Kee shareholding after we reclassified the shareholding to asset held for sale.
In addition, we provided about HKD 460 million on Goshawk in terms of this asset impairment as well as ECL provision. Finance costs during the period decreased by 9% to HKD 227 million as we benefited from a lower HIBOR interest rate as well as the lower average loan balance. We paid about HKD 5 billion of Hong Kong dollar denominated bank loans after receiving the proceeds from our disposal of SUEZ NWS as well as Xiamen Container Terminal Group. Profit attributable to shareholders increased by 161% to HKD 1.595 billion. The increase was pretty much in line with our positive profit alert announcement disclosed towards the end of January.
Basic earnings per share was HKD 0.41, which is an increase of 161% as well. Dividend per share was HKD 0.30, which represents an increase of 3.4%. Adjusted EBITDA, which is a proxy of our cash earnings, declined by 19%, and the decline was driven mainly by the absence of significant contribution from the strategic investment segment and also the reduced contribution from the disposed asset or asset held for sale assets. Moving on to the performance by each individual business segment. For the core business, the overall AOP declined by 8%.
Again, if you strip out the disposed half for sale asset, which is Wai Kee, as far as the core business is concerned, the recurring business, AOP was down just, you know, 3%, year-on-year. For the road business, the AOP was down 9% to HKD 969 million. The decline was driven mainly by the temporary prohibition of type five and six trucks on the Hangzhou Ring Road. As you remember, Hangzhou Ring Road is one of the most important contributor to the road's AOP, representing about 39% of the segment's AOP. For the aviation sector, the AOP was stable, an increase of 1% to HKD 274 million.
On one hand, the business continued to suffer from the restructuring of some of its lease fees. On the other hand, it recorded a stronger mark-to-market gain on its IRS contract of HKD 4.6 million this year versus just HKD 13 million last year. The construction segment AOP was down 23% year-on-year to HKD 408 million. Again, if you strip out Wai Kee, which was reclassified as a held for sale, and hence, you know, we stopped doing equity pick-up on this asset. The AOP of the construction segment represented almost 100% by Hip Hing, whose AOP was stable during the period as compared with last year.
The insurance AOP increased by 6% year-on-year to HKD 491 million, despite a still challenging environment 'cause of the border closure because of COVID. Thus, you know, the business recorded a very strong increase in insurance premium, and this was partly offset by the high claim expenses post the initial COVID outbreak. Moving on to the strategic portfolio. The overall AOP was down 82% to HKD 185 million. If you exclude the disposed asset or the asset held for sale asset, which are Xiamen Container Terminal Group under Logistics, SUEZ, Andebas and Derun under Environment, as well as the Strategic Investment segment, the strategic portfolio's recurrent AOP was indeed, you know, up 381%.
For the logistics business, the AOP was down 17% to HKD 279 million. Hang on. Okay, if we strip out Xiamen Container Terminal Group, the logistics AOP was indeed, you know, flat year-on-year. Facility management's AOP narrowed by 50% year-on-year to HKD 162 million. If you look at the explanatory box to the right of the table, it comprised of a few businesses. GHK's AOP narrowed by about 20%. HKCEC's AOP narrowed by about 79%, and Free Duty's AOP narrowed by about 32%.
Strategic investment, we recorded a very large fair value gain on certain investment last year, which contributed to this HKD 752 million gain in the first half of fiscal 2020. During the current period, there was no such gain, and we also, you know, make some easier provision on certain investment, contributing to a small loss of HKD 54 million. Discontinued operation, environment, as you can remember, you know, the environment segment comprised mainly SUEZ NWS and Derun. During 2021 first half, we received a dividend from SUEZ NWS, which amounted to HKD 121 million after we reclassified the asset as held for sale. Last year's HKD 244 million represent the equity pick-up on both SUEZ NWS as well as Derun.
Why don't I stop here and pass over to Ben to walk you through the performance of each individual business?
Okay, James. I'll first talk about the roads. As you see, road AOP was down this year due to the various reasons such as the resurgence of COVID in certain province where we operate, power crunch and also temporary prohibition of type 5 and 6 trucks using the Hangzhou Ring Road. Second, there are also. If you look into the three central expressways that we have acquired recently in the last few years, the numbers are up about 3% year-on-year, and it accounts for 11%. You can see the new acquisitions that we made in recent years are bearing fruit. If you look into our major expressway, it now contributes about 80%.
Excluding the Hangzhou Ring Road prohibition and the negative effect, the overall traffic is growing steadily at about 1%. Our average remaining concession is about 10%. As previously mentioned by Gilbert, we are continuing to look into to expand our growth portfolio. We'll continue to look for good opportunities with strong recurring cash flow as well as profit. In terms of the competition measures, there have been quite a number of provinces such as Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong, Shanxi, have confirmed it will be at least 79 days, and some more provinces to confirm. Switching to the next page on aviation, specifically GSA. If you look into the AOP, it is stable year-over-year and we do have some one-off on...
We continue to see some lease restructuring from certain airlines and reorganizations. Our non-operating losses has about HKD 274 million. If you look into the overall collection rate, it has improved to 127%, relative to the last Q2 2021 at 92%. Obviously it has improved. As you see, in certain areas such as Europe and U.S., flights are resuming. I think the darkest days is probably gone by now, but nevertheless, if you look into the recovery in certain areas, and particularly in Asia, there might still be some challenges in the recovery. In terms of the interest rate swaps, we have accounting gain of HKD 26 million.
With the continuing interest rate uptrend, we may see more GAAP accounting gains, mark-to-market accounting gains to come. In terms of outlook, we remain prudent and cautious in employing measured and disciplined business strategy. Obviously, the recovery path is also having some headwinds due to such as geopolitical tensions, due to COVID restrictions, and different variants of COVID. We'll continue to uphold a very strong risk management policy before we deploy further capital, and we try to minimize the risk for our shareholders. Thirdly, on the construction side. As Jim has mentioned, year-on-year down 23% mainly due to the absence of the equity pickup on Wai Kee and fair profit.
If you look into Hip Hing Group, which is now the remaining business within construction, it's been doing very well. If you look into the new contract awarded, it's at HKD 8.6 billion. Contract on hand is up 21% year- on- year to HKD 54.4 billion, and with a backlog of HKD 28.3 billion. If you look into the type of projects, it's about 67% private and 33% government and institution. As we know, there's been a lot of discussions and, you know, news about the government's commitment into boosting housing supply and particularly the role of new plans on Northern Metropolis will definitely be a very strong supply of projects in the mid to longer term. Hip Hing is very well positioned to capture those opportunities.
We are also expanding further in civil related projects such as site formation, pile frameworks. For example, for the Northern Metropolis in the northern side of Hong Kong in New Territories. That should also be a boost for Hip Hing Group. Turning to the insurance side. If you look into the AOP, year- on- year is up 6%. If you compare ACLI's results versus the market, we're up 1% versus the industry down about 5%. We consistently are performing the market. If you look into our agency forces, we continue to improve with 21% growth in the MDRT side.
If you look into the key metrics in the middle of the slide, particularly VNB margin is up due to enhanced product mix and product repricing. Our overall investments is still up. It's currently at about 5.3%. Our solvency is still well above the minimum requirement, 150%. Now we were sitting at 443%. Of course, the APE growth continues about 13% year-over-year. On the outlook for insurance, if you will, we are continuing to strengthen our agency forces with higher productivity and MDRTs. We'll continue to innovate different products to cater for the needs of the potential border reopening. We are also exploring further distribution channels and income streams.
Of course, with New World Group as our parent, we are well positioned to benefit from the ecosystem. Now I'd like to switch to the strategic portfolio. If you look into our logistics, year-on-year is down 17%, but that's mainly due to the lack of proper contribution from XCTG, which we sold last year. Year-on-year, excluding XCTG is about flat. There are three parts to the logistics side. ATL Logistics Centre. In this interim, we have reclassified from a PPE to an investment property to better reflect the latest business model. In turn, it has increased to HKD 7.3 billion in terms of NAV, which represents about 10%-11% of the group's NAV.
ATL continues to do well with an average rent increase of 2% and occupancy standing high at 99%. In CUIRC, the AOP is up 9%, mainly due to the robust growth in ancillary logistics services. Operationally, we continue to expand with the new Guangzhou terminal commenced operation in late December. We also are doubling the capacity of the Wuhan terminal. The expansion of Zhengzhou terminal capacity is underway. We have also made some investments in modern logistics, which we have talked about in previous results. In this interim, you've seen, we have invested in ANE. We have also invested in Worldex, which is an integrated logistics service provider covering major ports.
We'll continue to expand in this segment and look to deploy further capital in technology-related investments of service-based logistics as well as warehouses, because we do see very strong demand and sustainable demand from the mainland. Further into the strategic portfolio, in facility management side, the three businesses, two of them have been improving operationally. If you look into GHK, outpatient is up 49%. Inpatient is up 20% year-on-year. If you look into the occupancy rate, it's holding steady at 64% with increased regularly utilized beds. In terms of HKCEC, AOL narrowed noticeably in the interim, mainly due to the resumption of various smaller scale events and local events, and the patronage is up.
In terms of FREE DUTY, we have also seen some improvements with, although only one operating outlet opening with the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. We continue to work on different distribution channels such as online sales, pop-up stores. We'll continue to seek ways to improve returns while the main shops are closed. In terms of outlook, as Gilbert mentioned, we will continue to look for opportunities for growth. We'll have, in terms of GHK, you'll see continuous ramp-up in operation as well as new business initiatives such as having management contracts for other third parties as well as potentially within the group. CC and FREE DUTY will be well prepared for the border reopening and the international travel.
That concludes the business part of the presentation, but nevertheless, ESG is also what we have in mind. We'll walk you through some of the initiatives that we have carried out this year as well as some updates. In terms of sustainable financing, now we have over HKD 4 billion financing which is sustainable financing transaction. We'll continue to update and incorporate our commitment progressively to phase out some of the non-environmentally friendly businesses. If you continue to look, we are very much pledged towards supporting the government's initiative and the climate action in 2050. Moving on to the next page.
In terms of individual businesses, roads, we have entered into a three-way MoU with PowerChina and China Energy in a strategic alliances to explore different alternative energy applications. In terms of HML, which is the management company of HKCEC, we are a signatory of the Net Zero Carbon Events pledge in November, committed to reduce 50% of carbon by 2030, moving towards net zero by 2050. Moving on to some of the corporate governance update. We are undergoing review to be aligned with the revision from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. We are also looking into tightening up, and also as a result of climate related transition risk assessment in our ERM. We continue to review the status and impact of these transition risks.
On the policy update, we continue to review and update various policy in terms of climate change policy, sustainability policy, reducing our energy consumption, retraining, making new investments, debt or equity, co-firing power plants or coal mining. We continue to invest into clean energy and energy efficient technologies. Of course, we are also very mindful of the safety issues and also on the human rights as well. During this year this week, we have announced that we will donate 10,000 oximeters to public, and we will also arrange to have GHK to arrange free tele consultations in March.
For FTLife, they have also provided free protection insurance for those taxi drivers who are transporting COVID positive patients. Here's an overview of the various ESG ratings and updates. If we flip to the next page, which is the last page of our presentation, we do have quite a number of businesses being recognized by various organizers within the industry and construction for Hip Hing, for HKCEC. We're very proud that many of our business units have performed well and being recognized by the, you know, technology and various business organizations. I think that will conclude today's presentation, and I will open up the floor for Q&A.
Thank you, management. Now comes to the Q&A session. Please enter your questions into the text box on the left-hand side of the screen. Now we have our first question. What is the mix of fixed interest rate and floating interest rate debt on a consolidated basis?
Okay. Including the PERP, which is of an amount of $1.3 billion, we have total debt of about HKD 30 billion, of which 12 billion is floating rate and 18 billion is fixed rate. The proportion of floating rate debt would be 40% of total. Just wanna highlight that, you know, of this 12 billion floating rate notes, about CNY 3 billion is related to renminbi loans. As such, the Hong Kong dollar loan would amount to about HKD 9 billion or 30% of total debt, which will actually be, you know, impacted by the upcoming U.S. rate hike.
What is the reason for reclassifying ATL from PPE to investment property, and why do you do the revaluation of ATL in this interim? Is the HKD 7.3 billion the present value of the entire property of ATL?
Okay. In the past, auxiliary services accounted for a meaningful proportion of ATL's revenue. However, over the years, we have seen the tenant mix change towards the retailers in Hong Kong or international retailers and third-party logistics company. This company, they do not have a strong requirement for the auxiliary services provided by ATL. As a result, rental as a proportion of the total revenue of ATL has become higher and higher. We think that now is the right time to do the reclassification to reflect the underlying income mix of ATL.
The second part of the question is whether we have higher-
Yeah. Yes, we have hired independent property valuer to assist us on the valuation of this property. You know, in addition, you know, we want to highlight, you know, some of the parameters that we have chosen in our valuation exercise. We have adopted a cap rate of 5.5%, which we believe is very conservative compared with the transaction cap rate of 3%-4%. Also, you know, for 100% of ATL, the valuation is about HKD 14.9 billion. This contract has a total floor area of about 5.9 million sq ft, so that translate into a per square feet valuation of just HKD 2,500, which I think is very reasonable. It's not, you know, that too conservative.
Okay. Now we have the next question. After we dispose several businesses in the past years, what are some of our plans to reallocate the recycled capital, and any priority for re-allocating the recycled capital?
I think in these questions, I think we have always been telling our investors that we will look for investments in the growth segments, in the logistics segments. First of all, I think there's no priorities between these two segments. We definitely will look for assets that has a recurring income, recurring revenue as well, very strong cash flow. They always are the focus of NWS. I think with a simpler business portfolio now, it is actually we're in a positions to look for good investments and not to rush into any investments, especially with the economic outlook that we currently are being affected by COVID.
I think going forward, we'll remain focused on our current business, especially when I talk about the rails, as well as the logistics. At the same time, we'll also further expand our insurance business. Especially, we're applying for our China license, and we'll definitely expand into GBA and China once we get our license. Also, I want to reiterate that we will continue our sustainable and progressive dividend policy. I think that is actually very important and actually demonstrated our commitment to generate values for our shareholders.
Any further non-core disposals?
I think first of all, as I mentioned from the very beginning of the presentations, we have done a quite number of non-core disposals over the last few years. At the same time, I think the world is keep changing. We'll continue to look at our portfolio and look at the risk, as well as the growth potentials of each of our businesses. It is actually very difficult to tell you guys whether there will be any further non-core disposals. As I mentioned, I think the situation change with times. We will monitor the performance of each of our segments, and we'll do disposal as and when we think the timing is right.
What is your strategy for aircraft leasing business? What is your guidance on the aircraft lease size and financial year 2022 and 2023? Any plan to sell some of the existing aircraft, and what is your expansion strategy?
I think first of all, the aircraft leasing business is, although it's getting back to track, but at the same time there is still risk involved in the business, including the potential increase in interest rate, also the COVID variants still affecting many countries. We will probably take a more risk-averse stance on the aircraft leasing business. Therefore, we don't have any plans on the aircraft fleet increase in the coming year. Whether there's any plan to sell some of the existing aircraft, it really depends on the opportunities.
If there's good value that we can actually generate from selling some of the existing aircraft, and also as part of our portfolio management exercise within the aircraft leasing segments, we'll definitely do that. Also regarding expansion strategies, as I said, I think it is more of a risk management in this business rather than in any expansion mode for this business.
Another question for aviation. Have you ever considered disposing the aviation business at the right price, or we don't have any plan to sell down this business at all?
I think this question is very important. I mean, you ask at the right price. What is the right price? When we find the right price, we won't rule out the possibility of disposing the aviation business. First of all, we need to find the right price. That answers your second question, whether any plan to sell down the business at all. I think at the end of the day, whatever possibility to generate more value for the shareholders, I think we as management will consider.
Will you consider buyback?
Yes. We definitely will consider. I think with our cash on hand as well as our available facilities, we'll consider different options to return value to the shareholders. As we have already done in the last two financial period, we increased our dividend by 3.5%, respectively last year's and this year's. Buyback is definitely one of the options that we'll consider to increase value for the shareholders. One would consider, I mean, for myself and for the management, we need to ensure that we have cash for potential acquisitions. I think that is more important for the long-term generations of value for the shareholders.
What is management thinking about the future dividend growth trend?
That depends on the businesses. I think it is too early to say, especially COVID Omicron is still affecting Hong Kong, as well as other part of the world. I think it's too early to project our future dividend growth. As I mentioned, when we see opportunities that we can actually generate value for the shareholders, we won't hesitate to increase our dividend.
This question is related to FT Life. Do you have some updates on the China license application, and what is the progress now?
We are proceeding with the China license applications. We don't have any updates as of now, but once we have more progress, we'll give our investors more updates.
Do you consider selling those assets in strategic investments given its volatility to AOP?
The different investment within the strategic investments are actually investments that will, first of all, have growth potentials. At the same time, it will provide synergies to our other segments. I think we will continuously to review these assets or these investments and divest when the right opportunity arises. In fact, last year you saw the gain within the segment is around HKD 700 million. Some of the gain is actually coming from the disposals of this investment. You will see as management, we always won't hesitate to sell these investments when it can generate value for the company and for the shareholders.
In the interest of time, let us have our last question. How do you see the outlook for facilities management segment?
Very good question. Now, within the facility management, there is actually three different businesses. First of all, for Gleneagles, I think it continues to improve since EBITDA break-even in 2021. That will definitely continue to ramp up. We don't see any trend of it going backwards. Even during COVID, I think every single month we still can achieve record high results in terms of growth in the outpatients as well as growth in the inpatients. For Hong Kong Convention Center, that very much depends on the COVID situations.
We definitely see some improvement since the resumptions of local and smaller scale events since the beginning of this year after COVID's becomes more stable. With the recent outbreak of COVID variants, I think that adds the uncertainties. We strongly believe that once it is more under control, this with the great facilities of HKCEC, which is pretty much irreplaceable, it will becomes the venue of choice for different exhibitions and conventions. Once the border reopened, we will see the recovery very swiftly. Last but not least is our Free Duty business. Definitely it really depends on when the borders reopened. Even now the border has closed, our
One of only one shops which opened in Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is actually generating positive AOP. Also with our E-commerce and pop-up store, actually they all generating positive AOPs. We believe the reopening of the borders will definitely add on further catalyst to this particular business.
Thank you Gilbert, Jim, and Ben. Now comes to the end of our presentation. Thank you for joining us today. If you have further questions of the briefing, you are always welcome to schedule a call with us. Thank you very much. Stay healthy and goodbye.