Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. This is Carina, the Head of Corporate Communication and Sustainability. Welcome to Champion REIT's 2026 interim results analyst briefing. Today, our Executive Director and Finance Director, Ms. Rosana Sung, and our Investment and Investor Relations Director, Ms. Amy Luk, will present our interim results. After the presentation, there will be a Q&A section. Amy, please.
Thank you, Carina, and good afternoon, everyone. During the first half of 2026, while the macro environment continued to feel with uncertainties, we saw signs of stabilization of our portfolio. Here are some highlights. Central office market rents are stabilizing, with Three Garden Road achieving positive rental reversion on some lease renewal cases. For Langham Place Mall, our proactive tenant management continued to drive positive impact, with new retail tenants driving sales rebound at the mall. On financing, we successfully secured credit facilities for refinancing all the debt maturing in 2026. Now I will pass to Rosana to walk through the result highlights.
Thank you, Amy. Let's look at the interim results highlights. Occupancy across our properties stayed stable and resilient. We saw a narrowing negative rental reversion for our central office, and lower average HIBOR resulted in reduced cash finance cost. For the first half of 2026, total rental income decreased 7.8% year-on-year to HKD 949 million. Net property income decreased 9.3% year-on-year to HKD 718 million, while distributable income decreased 9.1% year-on-year to HKD 432 million. Distribution per unit decreased to HKD 0.0633 in first half of 2026. Turning to our debt profile, we have secured credit facilities for refinance all debt maturing in 2026, including securing our HKD 3 billion sustainability-linked loan with the support of eight banks. We have also broadened our lender base with a new bilateral credit facility offered by a new lender.
As of 30 June 2026, undrawn committed facilities amounted to HKD 2,560 million, giving us flexibility for the 2027 refinancing needs. Gearing remained healthy at 25.4%. For the first half of 2026, fixed rate debt portion was 47.4%, and average effective interest rate lowered to 3.6%. On valuation, the portfolio was valued at HKD 56.4 billion, which increased mildly, mainly due to higher rental assumptions of Three Garden Road. The cap rate of all properties remained unchanged. Now I will hand over to Amy to walk you through the operational performance of our properties.
Thank you, Rosana. For Three Garden Road, the solid central office leasing momentum has driven up market rents in the overall central market. We also observed stabilization of rents in Three Garden Road and recorded positive rental reversion in some renewal cases. While the overall negative rental reversion has been narrowing, inspection momentum also stayed solid. We continue to adopt a proactive approach on lease renewal, with over 90% of 2026 expiry confirmed to renew. We also managed the expiry of anchor tenants prudently to avoid concentration of expiries, to ensure income stability. Occupancy maintained a stable level of 82.2% as at 30th June 2026, with passing rent at HKD 71.1 per sq ft.
We continue to enhance Three Garden Road as a premier wealth management and family office hub through our wealth talk series and strengthen engagement with family office, banks, and wealth management professionals and tenants. For Langham Place Office, the property remains a preferred location for healthcare, beauty, and wellness operators, with lifestyle and wellness tenants accounting for 67% of the area, with occupancy remained resilient at 86.2% amid competition in the broader Kowloon office, with passing rent at HKD 41.7 per sq ft. To diversify the tenant mix, we secure an international direct sales company and its distributors as new tenants. We also continue to enhance tenant engagement and create value for our stakeholders. Among the stakeholder collaborations included cross-property outreach, such as health talks delivered by Langham Place Office tenants to Three Garden Road tenants.
These engagement initiatives helped strengthening tenant relationship and were well received. For Langham Place Mall, we continue to reinforce the mall as a retail trendsetter through agile leasing and marketing. Proactive tenant mix-refinement captured emerging trends and brought in popular brands. For example, the introduction of fashion brands that fit the mall's customer demographics resulted in double-digit growth in the fashion segment, and also helped driving the sales of the mall to the positive territory in the first half of 2026. Occupancy stayed high at 99.5%, and passing rent was at HKD 153.1 per sq ft. Adding to our tenant mix rebranding, we leverage our IP synergies, strategic promotions, and cultural engagements to reinforce the mall's positioning as a retail trendsetter, like the recent Chiikawa pop-up stores and the collaboration with well-known local brand Garden, all deliver very solid result.
On sustainability, our commitment to sustainability earned further prestigious recognitions and shown in this slide. This year, our Three Garden Road also obtained WiredScore Platinum recertification, demonstrating our continued effort for deliver best-in-class connectivity. We also built momentum across several key fronts, including flagship Eco Champion pledge, which drive collective environmental efforts with tenants. We also expanded our multi-themed recycling program at Langham Place. On the social front, we sustained our commitment to youth development by supporting the government-led Strive and Rise Programme, and hosted an opera concert here in our Three Garden Road with the performer sharing her career journey with the youth participants. On outlook for office, Central office leasing sentiment improving. Our Three Garden Road is well positioned to capture future leasing opportunities. The property will undergo a major asset enhancement initiative to further enhance its competitiveness.
At Langham Place Office, there will be further diversification of tenant mix. For retail, we will continue refining the tenant mix at Langham Place Mall, including introduction of first-in-Hong-Kong brands, and also roll out a robust pipeline of marketing and festive campaigns to provide engaging experience to shoppers. For liability management, following the refinancing of the debt maturing this year, we will maintain a disciplined approach to capital management and look for opportunities to broaden our lender relationships. We will also continue to deepen collaboration with our tenants, business partners, and stakeholders to create long-term value. Before we open the floor to questions, we would like to share that there is no update regarding the appointment of our CEO. An announcement will be made as and when appropriate. On the business operations side, we have Ms. Yvonne Lau rejoining us as our COO in asset management.
Yvonne is a seasoned real estate and professional, and she will be overseeing the management of our properties portfolio. This is the end of our interim presentation. Thank you. We will now open the floor for questions.
Thank you, management. This is Mark Leung from UBS. I have a first question regarding our leasing strategy for the remaining around 20% vacant space in Three Garden Road. Are we rushed in leasing this kind of vacant space? Because I recall last time you mentioned it is more like a separate small unit. It seems pretty, quite fit for hedge fund. Are you waiting for a better price to lease out? That is the first question. My second question is, can you elaborate more what kind of AEI you are looking for Three Garden Road, CapEx, where to renovate? Also, you mentioned to diversify the Mong Kok Langham Place Office Tower. What kind of tenant mix you are looking at for the office portion? Thank you.
Okay. For Three Garden Road, we continue to adopt a flexible leasing strategy. As we also mentioned in the announcement, smaller fitted office are quite popular, and we continue to do that. So we keep on being flexible and also keep on doing it at market rent. As the market rent has stabilized, not only for Central but also for Three Garden Road, then we will be seeing and also achieving positive rental reversion for some cases. So, we keep on to adopt flexible strategy and then try to optimize the overall performance of the property. For the AEI, it is in very preliminary stage. Actually, it will be quite a comprehensive one. We keep on doing the toilet renovation upgrade, and then the upcoming one will be uplifting the image and also the overall ambience of the property.
Then we will be sharing more info when we get more detailed in the planning. In terms of the CapEx, it is also a little bit early to quote a number, but we will be using our internal resources and also the standby facilities to fund the CapEx. Then preliminary estimate is very limited impact to the gearing level, just probably slightly a little bit higher. In terms of the Langham Place Office diversification, we got traditionally, or in the past years, it has been more focused on wellness and lifestyle tenants. Then this year we saw some downsizing in terms of some of these tenants. So to diversify the mix, this year we introduced one international direct sales tenant. Then its related distributors in [inaudible] chain is also joining Langham Place Office.
Then there will be other industry of tenants that should be also joining in later of this year. We will be also sharing more information with you as they move in.
Hi, this is Cindy. Two questions from me. The first is on Three Garden Road reversion. You mentioned the narrow reversion. What magnitude of reversion are we talking about? Is it, say, high single-digit negative? Is there any visibility towards a potential stabilization in reversion? I see your passing rent is probably similar to my understanding of the spot rent now. So maybe next year or the year after, when do you think is the correct time for the stabilizing reversion?
The second item is on your finance cost. Can you indicate on the refinancing margin for your recent refinancing versus the previous? Has there been any improvement in the spread? Also, how is your finance outlook into the second half amid the very dynamic market? Thank you.
Okay. For the reversion, maybe we can also roll back or rewind last year because in terms of the expiry, it is quite a bit of expiry in 2025, say, over 40% of expiry. Last year, the market was not really stabilizing yet. So the magnitude of negative rental reversion was relatively higher. Say, last year expiring rent was at the average, at the 90%, and then rents that we confirmed at the 60%- 70%, that kind of level. So that's why the passing rent last year at December 2025, lower to the 70%-ish level. This year, the expiring rent was roughly at the 80%. Then we are doing deals at the 70% to some cases touching the 80% or above 80%. So that kind of the negative rental reversion is narrowing.
Say, we expect that effect could be lasting for some time because in terms of the rental income, it will take some time to fully reflect the market stabilization. Next year, 2027, our expiring rent will be at the 70%. So if the momentum is maintaining at current level or continue to improve, then hopefully we could be achieving neutral reversion by next year. But also depending on a case-by-case basis. In some cases, we already achieved positive rental reversion. On the financing, there is some kind of improvement in terms of margin for the loan that we secure this year. Not a very big magnitude, but it is improving. This year, we already handle everything that we need for the refinancing, and we have already started preliminary discussion and evaluation for next year's refinancing needs.
Yeah, we got also committed undrawn facilities that can provide flexibility for next year's refinancing.
Hi, [inaudible] . This is Percy from DBS. I've got two questions. One is regarding the occupancy at Three Garden Road. Just wondering what's your outlook in terms of the occupancy for Three Garden Road in the second half. Do we see room for higher occupancy in near term? Just to follow up on your description on the asset enhancement work, I'm just wondering, would there be any impact on the occupancy? Would you have to move tenants around for the AEI? Secondly is on the Langham Place Mall. Just wondering how, in terms of the retail sales lately, particularly as we're moving towards second half, and what's the reversion for the mall at the moment? Thank you.
Okay. For first question is Three Garden Road occupancy. Occupancy, we expect stable and hopefully we have some improvement. Because although we already confirmed over 90%, some tenants may be giving back space to us. On a very conservative basis, we expect stable. Hopefully, we can provide better occupancy. In terms of the renovation, there should be no need to vacate any tenant because it is at the lobby and also the lobby of the office floor. It is just like when doing the toilet renovation, the tenant will be staying as usual in there. For the latest retail sales, it really depends on the category. Some tenants are doing quite well, and some may still be facing some challenges. Overall, we already rebound to the positive territory this year in the first half.
Second half, there is still a lot of uncertainty in the market. As we see, the tourist inbound momentum has been keeping quite well, so hopefully there will be a better second half. In terms of reversion on a conservative estimate, we will still be expecting some reversion on the negatives, on the downward side for the remaining part of the year. Also, in some case, we achieve positive rent reversion, but some, not so much or maybe flat. Blended, we will see.
If there is no further question, perhaps we can wrap up the interim results. Thank you for all your participation, and have a very good evening.
Thank you