Good morning. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, friends from the media, analysts, bankers, investors, and CDL colleagues. My name is Belinda, and I am the Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at CDL. On behalf of the management, a very warm welcome to CDL's briefing on its unaudited first half 2024 financial results. Thank you for joining us this morning. We have quite a big group this morning right here at the M Hotel Singapore, as well as we have a large group that is joining us on live webcast this morning. For today's briefing, in line with CDL's commitment to environmental sustainability, we encourage you to scan the QR code that will be screened up here, and to download the following documents that were already uploaded on the SGX website this morning.
They include a copy of the detailed financial statement, a press release summarizing the key highlights of our performance, a presentation deck that the group will be going through very shortly. For our guests that are joining us live on webcast, you would similarly be able to download these documents on our website on the tab in front of you. I would like to introduce you to the CDL management panel. In the center, we have Mr. Kwek Leng Beng, our Executive Chairman, followed by our Exco members, Mr. Sherman Kwek, our Group CEO, Mr. Kwek Eik Sheng, our Group Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Chia Ngiang Hong, our Group General Manager, and Ms. Yiong Yim Ming, our Group Chief Financial Officer. The format of today's briefing will be in two parts.
We will kick off with a presentation of some of the key highlights, and then followed by a Q&A opportunity. Without further ado, I would like to invite Mr. Sherman Kwek, CDL Group CEO, to kickstart the presentations. Mr. Kwek, please.
I can just use the arrows, right? Okay. Okay. You know what? Maybe I might have to use this because I have to stand near the mic, but the computer is all the way there. Anyway, thank you. Today, all of you quite formal give me some applause as I come up to the stage as well, even though as I will take you through, we have faced quite a lot of sector headwinds. I know we did not exactly release the prettiest set of results. But we have a lot of stuff in the works, and we intend, I think, to further accelerate things as we move forward. As you can see, in the first half of 2024, our revenue is down primarily because the corresponding period last year we had this Piermont Grand, our EC project in Punggol that TOP-ed in January last year.
As you all know, when EC projects TOP, that's when you recognize the full revenue and profit, and that made it quite hard for us to compare because there was SGD 1 billion of revenue that came in just from Piermont Grand last year. But the truth of the matter is that our profitability has been quite severely impacted, I think, by the higher financing cost. As long as this interest rate environment remains high, it certainly put a lot of pressure on our business. As you all would have noticed over the last couple of years, we've been investing quite heavily in recurring income assets on the multifamily side, on the student accommodation side. Many of them are doing very well. But in this high interest rate environment, it's actually quite difficult, I think, to even cover the financing cost.
Having said that, I think we are generally of the view that hopefully next month we will see the first signs of easing as interest rates hopefully start to taper down. That should lift a lot of pressure off our business. The other thing that impacted us was we had certain projects, not all, but certain projects that are also delayed on the construction side. In terms of sales value, over the last few years, we've actually done well, I would say. But as you know, in Singapore especially, you recognize based on the progress of construction of completion and that. Once construction is delayed it's a timing of profit recognition. Unfortunately, with some delays that we faced over the last 12 months, we didn't recognize as much profit as we thought we were going to in the first half of this year.
But as I said, the good news is that all that's locked in, so that will come in in the next few quarters. In terms of our metrics, they are what they are. Our share price hasn't exactly performed too well, and obviously on May 31, we suffered from the deletion from the MSCI Singapore Index, which certainly was a blow to us. It was something we were keen to avoid, but it's happened, and doesn't mean we can't get back into the index again at some stage. But we will certainly keep powering ahead. Our, for lack of a better term, RNAV which revalues all of our fair values, all of our investment properties and hotels, has ticked up slightly to 1949.
We are certainly at the current share price trading at a very, very deep discount, which is also why we did some share buybacks over the last couple of months. Although we've kind of just put it on hold for the time being because obviously our gearing has gone up. We're just assessing where we are right now. We can restart it again at some point in future, but we really do need the interest rate environment to be a little bit more favorable before we proceed forward. For this year, I think out of prudence, we are so-called declaring a SGD 0.02 dividend compared to last year's SGD 0.04 for the first half. But it doesn't mean, again, we can't do a bigger dividend at year-end, right? I think we just want to see how things pan out.
It is a very uncertain environment, and costs are high. I think all of you know that in the development side of things, not just in Singapore but globally, costs have gone up substantially from both labor costs and materials. That is stabilizing but really hasn't tapered down, so has put a lot of pressure on the development side of the business too. I won't go into this in very deep detail because I have more slides later on in this deck that talk about it. Basically for last year, we sold about 588 units with total sales value of SGD 1.2 billion. Sorry, for the first half of this year, 588 units with a total sales value of SGD 1.2 billion, which I think was a good showing. Obviously, much of that sales came from Lumina Grand, our EC that we launched in Bukit Batok West Avenue.
We are really glad to see that the take-up has been very strong for that. The truth is, in the first half of this year, the whole Singapore market saw a lot lower number of new unit launches, right? I think for last year, first half of 2023, total number of new units launched was about 3,400. Whereas this year it's about 2,400 across the whole market. So it's about 30% less than last year. That coupled with obviously in a high interest rate environment, it would cause some buyer caution as well. Therefore resulted, I think in overall market being weaker than the same period last year. So I think we've seen the numbers already from the URA residential index, all that.
For the first half this year for the whole market for new launches, we're just under 2,000 units versus last year for the full year was about 6,400 units. So this year we forecast, I think the general consensus view is that we'll probably end up around 5,000- 6,000 units for the full year for the full market. But it is what it is. Prices so far for this year for the Singapore resi market according to the URA index has gone up about 2.3%. So general consensus is forecasting that the price increase for the full year will be about 2.5%- 3.5%, thereabout. So certainly down from, I think for the full year of 2023, the prices were up about 6.8%.
So I think after three years of very strong price increases, I think this year we're starting to see things moderate quite a bit. Aside from Lumina Grand, where we've done really well since launching in January, we have also strengthened our development pipeline locally. We have participated in this and been awarded the Zion Road tender. I'll go more into that later as well as obviously there's this Jurong Lake District mega tender that's not been awarded yet. Then, recently you would've seen news for this en bloc sale of Delfi Orchard where we decided to acquire it back, which makes sense since we own the two plots next to it, which is Claymore Connect, the retail mall, as well as Orchard Hotel. In China, the bulk of our residential inventory that's been launched has been sold.
We do have a new project in Suzhou that we acquired last year. We are looking to launch it beginning of next year. In Australia we have two projects in Brisbane, but both are also substantially sold. On the hotel side, I think we've all seen very positive momentum. Last year was extremely strong year for hotels. Same for the first half of this year. No doubt there are some headwinds building up again for the hotel sector. But so far I think it's been very encouraging for us. You can see RevPAR is up 3%, occupancy up almost 2 percentage points and ARR has ticked up slightly against the first half of last year.
We had certain regions like Australasia that outperformed and achieved a 30% increase in RevPAR, but that was mainly driven by the acquisition of the Sofitel Brisbane Central, 460 rooms there. Then of course, we also in the recent months announced the acquisition of the Hilton in Paris . On the commercial side, things are still doing pretty well. I think there may be some headwinds ahead, but I think there's still limited supply on the office side, so that helps to keep things in check. So far, I think for first half this year for the whole Singapore office market, rents and occupancy are pretty much stable. Same for the retail sector in Singapore as well, pretty much stable. Our portfolio has still held up and been resilient. Same thing in the U.K. despite the U.K. facing more challenges.
Not as bad as the U.S. but still more challenges because of work from home and all kinds of other stuff. But I think our portfolio in the U.K. is still doing well. Then, obviously, there's the living sector which has been a big focus for us in the last few years. We continue to expand with a couple more acquisitions. I'll talk more about those later. Same with our PBSA portfolio. Then on fund management side, I have a slide on that. This one just shows you what our portfolio is like on our books, SGD 24 billion. If we fair valued everything, the IPs and hotels, our asset base is about SGD 33 billion right now. So we definitely have to push ahead and accelerate our capital recycling, I think to really start to monetize more and unlock more latent value from our existing portfolio.
The breakdown geographically and business segment is shown there. Okay, back to our GET strategy, Growth, Enhancement, and Transformation. On the growth side, we've continued to deploy capital, not as fast as last year. I think we've been slowing the pace down. Last year, we deployed SGD 2.4 billion. This year, so far, we deployed SGD 1.1 billion. It doesn't include Delfi Orchard because the acquisition has not gone through yet. It's been awarded but has not gone through yet. It's pending sale completion. But so far, I think the big ones here are the Zion Road, where we partner with Mitsui Fudosan, 50/50 to take down Pasir Panjang Zion Road. This is that big greenfield part of that big greenfield plot that's next to Great World City, Great World Mall. So, really pleased with that, and that will be a strong project for us.
We did three relatively smaller multi-family acquisitions in Japan, all in very good locations. The prime one there is Akasaka, one of the three A's in Japan's Central Five Wards. That was completed. That property was physically completed last year. The other two, one is in Saitama, which is part of Greater Tokyo, and the other is Namba in Osaka. The other two were completed this year. I think it's in line with our strategy that we still try to go for a newer portfolio. Now we have, in Japan, 40 multi-family assets, 38 already operational, two that will physically complete this year. We have a very new portfolio with the exclusion of maybe excluding two or three older properties. The whole portfolio's average age is two years or less.
Very new portfolio, so you have less maintenance issues, and it's a very strong competitive product. In the U.K., we acquired a BTR, a build to rent, The Yardhouse, which is in White City. It's a forward-funded mechanism. Of course, the hotels I mentioned earlier. On the right-hand side in the pie chart, you can see the breakdown of what we've acquired in terms of by asset class. Sing-resi launch pipeline. As mentioned earlier, really glad that we have done well on Lumina Grand, a 512-unit project. Zion Road will yield over 700 units, and that's coming along nicely on the design side. We're working very closely with Mitsui Fudosan. We have our Newport Residences that's been ready for launch since mid of last year. We're still waiting to see how things pan out before we launch it.
This one obviously has the much-talked-about super penthouse that I worked with the architects to personally design as well. So 13,000 sq ft on a single floor, freehold at the top of this building. We're waiting to see how things pan out before we launch this project. The good thing is there's no ABSD timeline here. There is QC, but it's all the way down, many years from now. We have the so-called fortune of being able to wait. We are continuing to construct. TOP-wise, there's no issue there. Coming up in the next couple of months, we have two very exciting projects. One is Norwood Grand. It's our project up in Woodlands. The last private residential launch in Woodlands was about 12 years ago. I think it's called Parc Rosewood or something like that.
I think it's going to be very strong pent-up demand because there's not been any new launch in 12 years. We have also Union Square Residences. I know we put in the generic picture showing you the three plots of land, but we have done a really outstanding design, and we wanted to save the visuals for when we launch it. We have also done up the show flat already, the sales gallery and show flats already. We actually took over the former Canninghill Piers show flat. We have revamped it totally. You won't even recognize it. It's a two-story show flat. Even the staircase, everything has been shifted. I would say to date, it's probably one of the best projects that we've ever done. We've lifted the bar even more.
Can't wait to host many of you at Union Square when we launch it for sale. We will unveil, as I said, more exciting visuals then, but it's a very stunning, striking architecture with two tall towers, one for residential, one for office, and of course, a lot of co-living and retail spread across some of the heritage buildings as well. Then this tripartite, this three-way consortium of which we are 1/3 of, launched this Kassia, so-called, in July, last month, and that's 56% sold. Then lastly, there's The Orie in Toa Payoh, which will be only launching next year, first half of next year. That's also going to be, I think, a very spectacular project. The last launch in Toa Payoh was by Evia. It's called Gem Residences, and that was eight years ago.
The last private condo launch in Toa Payoh was eight years ago. We think this is going to have very strong demand. We are 50% of the JV together with Frasers and Sekisui House, Japanese developer. That will have around 777 units. That's for next year. This is obviously the JLD, as we call it for short, Jurong Lake District, the JLD master developer site. Our consortium was the only bidder but we haven't been awarded yet, so we're still waiting for news. I would say we bid very cautiously on this. If we get awarded, I would say that it will be a nice entry point for all of us.
Max allowable GFA, 365,000 sq m, so that's just shy of 4 million sq ft, and is split across 40% office, 40% resi, which is about 1,700 units, and the other 20% will be for hospitality, retail, and other uses across. It's a very beautiful site and anchored by two MRT stations on both ends of the plot. One is existing, the Jurong East huge interchange station, and the future cross-island JLD station. These are the five developers that went in together, and I think we have formed one of the strongest consortiums ever. We should be able to realize a very stunning vision for this JLD site if we are successfully awarded it. Strategic divestments. Yes, earlier in the year, beginning of the year, I threw out a SGD 1 billion number. We are quite far from that.
The truth is, there are several big divestments I have underway, both in Singapore as well as overseas. But those are requiring time to negotiate, and those aren't going to happen so quickly. What you see here are, for lack of a better term, the lower hanging fruit. We sold things like our freehold strata industrial units at Citilink and Cititech. Those two are fully sold out. Was actually snapped up very fast. I guess freehold industrial units are very sought after. Then there's Fortune Centre, which also has seen strong take-up. Then there's Sunshine and The Venue shops and car park is basically the remnants of our project last time, The Venue at Potong Pasir. That we are also pushing along.
So far, we have divested SGD 172 million, so quite far short of it, but we do need some of the bigger divestments to take place before we can hit that SGD 1 billion number. I do not know if they can happen by this year. They may trickle into next year. The truth is, I think the fact of the matter is they are underway and hopefully I hope they materialize sooner rather than later. Let us see how things go. On to enhancement. These are just some of the AEIs that we have completed. I think in the last couple of years, while Phuket has been under a lot of pressure and due to COVID and all that, visitor arrivals were down. We took the opportunity to really revamp our very aged shopping mall.
I was just there recently together with the board, and we are really pleased with what has been done there. So extensive AEI covering more than 200,000 sq m. We spent about SGD 37 million, about THB 1 billion . So far, I think we are seeing very strong comeback for this mall as well. Foreign visitorship is also strengthening. Likewise, we also spent a similar amount to do up the hotel there. It is a 418-room hotel and all works are now done. It is split between two wings. So we anticipate that this will start to strongly boost our investment properties segment. Same thing in Singapore City Square Mall. I think the mall has done well for us over the years but has also aged. So we have done a very big SGD 50 million revamp of the mall.
Phase one is already completed, including the basement levels, and now we are pushing on to phase two. There are some of the parts of the basement levels that still need to be done up further, but more or less completed phase one and phase two is ongoing at the moment. So I think we are very confident that once the AEI is done, it will be a very fresh new look for City Square Mall. Many of you remember for Republic Plaza Tower I, we spent in excess of SGD 50 million and did up the whole Tower I, which so far, I think over the years, we reopened, so-called, we relaunched Tower I in 2019 and gained a lot of compliments for what we have done to really brighten up and open up the space, the common areas, and do up many of the floors.
Likewise, I think it is time now for us to do Republic Plaza Tower II, the smaller tower. So it is a small amount we are spending, but we are going to be changing the whole look of the tower as well. It is going to look very nice after we are done by the middle of next year. As mentioned earlier, I think Union Square is a mixed-use development we are very excited about. We bought the neighboring plot, this Central Square from Far East Hospitality Trust, and then amalgamated with the two sites that we owned. We were very privileged to apply for and get a 67% GFA uplift under the Strategic Development Incentive scheme. So now this is the breakdown that you see of the resi, the office, the retail, and the co-living. We will be doing a very stunning project across this site.
I think that should revitalize that whole area as well, which traditionally has suffered from a bit of a lack of foot traffic. I will share more details on that in future briefings. There is a lot of good news for the office for this development. We have also been able to secure some heavyweight tenants in advance. Things are going really well. Newport Plaza, as mentioned earlier, we got a GFA uplift of 25% under the CBD Incentive Scheme. We are holding back from launching the resi, but we are continuing with the construction. We are at the superstructure stage now, and we continue to build. On the hotel side, we are continuing, I think, to convert more of our trophy properties into the M Social brand, which is a brand that has seen much success within our stable of brands and portfolios.
In London, for Millennium Hotel London Knightsbridge, which enjoys a very prime location on Sloane Street, we are refurbishing it to a tune of SGD 28 million, and this should be completed by next year. For New York, this is the downtown in New York, the one that is actually near the World Trade Center, the former World Trade Center. This, we are rebranding it and repositioning it to the M Social, downtown New York. Obviously there is a new build in Sunnyvale, which it was formerly an old hotel. We tore it down. We have built a multifamily, where the former hotel sits. On another part of the site, we are building a new hotel there. That is anticipated to be the M Social in Sunnyvale. Sustainability leadership.
I am not going to cover this slide too much, but I think we are very grateful to still be one of the leading companies in the world on the sustainability front. Much credit, I think, to my predecessors before me who started this whole push to make us greener since 1995. I think for close to three decades, we have just been pushing ahead with this mission in mind. On the governance and transparency side, recently you would have seen me ranked second as well. Our highest ranking to date since this index was started. We have obtained greater than SGD 9 billion of sustainable financing since 2017. Last part is transformation. As mentioned earlier, our shares were very undervalued over the last few months and even more undervalued now. We have purchased back about 13.5 million shares to a tune of about SGD 80 million.
We continue to watch the market to see when we have opportunities. As mentioned earlier, I think with the interest rate being so high, I think we do have to put this on pause for the time being. On the right side, that is our rationale for why we really should be buying shares in our own company. It is one of the best investments and in the business that we should know best. We are strongly in favor of what we have done on the share buyback side. Fund management side, as I said, right now, I think we have built a very sizable portfolio on the global living sector side, as well as we have those three commercial properties in the U.K. We hope to be able to unlock the value and monetize it at some stage.
Having all these assets gives us the opportunity, I think, to inject them into listed or unlisted platforms. Obviously, at the same time, we also have two REIT platforms, CDL Hospitality Trusts as well as IREIT Global, both with very different focus. These continue to be strong growth drivers for us. Obviously, we do need interest rate environment to be a bit more favorable, need capital markets to be a bit more favorable before I can accelerate things a bit further. We are working already on some new platforms that hopefully we can unveil within the next 12 months if all goes smoothly. For my last slide, just to give you a flavor of what we have built up over the last few years in the global living sector portfolio. This shows you the breakdown by country as well.
Obviously, we only have one PRS, Private Rental Sector project, which is the Sunnyvale one I mentioned. In U.K. right now, we have 2,368 student accommodation beds, as well as 1,857 PRS units. In Japan, we have 2,246 across 40 assets, with two to be physically completed this year. In Australia, we have two build-to-rent projects that will yield 563 units. I think we are very confident in this sector. Obviously, this sector, aside from Japan, which still has a strong spread over borrowing rates over there. The rest of the countries do come under pressure because of where interest rates are right now. We do need this to be a bit more of a favorable environment.
Suffice to say, I think we built up a very strong and sizable portfolio that opens up a lot of options for us to create new fund management platforms and entities. We do realize that I think we need to continue to push forward with speed on our capital recycling. It's something that will become part of our ordinary course of business, and you will see it year in, year out. We are trying to accelerate that, but it will take some time. We are working on that, and I see that as things go forward, we will start to get into a much stronger capital position. Our business will start to be a little bit more asset light. I think that will stand us in good stead for the future.
At this stage, I'll pass it over to Yim Ming , who will briefly take you through the financial highlights, and then we'll open it up for Q&A. Thank you.
Thank you, Sherman. I am aware it is very close to lunchtime. I promise to keep this succinct and short. First, let us have a snapshot on the performance of our three core segments. Revenue declined substantially from SGD 1.7 billion in one half of for property development, I mean, sorry. Revenue declined substantially from SGD 1.7 billion to SGD 469 million. Sherman has mentioned largely due to the timing of profit recognition. We are all aware that this segment itself is always lumpy in nature. The first half of 2023, we have the EC project, which boosted the first half of 2023 revenue. For first half 2024, the contributors for revenue and PBT includes AWEL, The Myst, and overseas projects such as in Shenzhen, New Zealand, and Australia.
Notably, our recent projects, which are JV in nature, such as Tembusu Grand, Piccadilly Grand, and Canninghill Piers, they do not contribute to revenue line. PBT for this segment is SGD 9 million for first half of 2024. Lower revenue translates directly to lower profits for this segment. This is of course, exacerbated by the construction delays and high financing costs for projects yet to be launched, which is our Norwood Grand as well as our Central Mall. Hotel segment. This segment registered 11% increase in revenue, reported profit of SGD 23 million. Revenue growth is really very much from acquisition growth for properties including our Sofitel Brisbane Central in December 2023, Hilton Paris Opéra in May 2024, and the soft opening of M Social Phuket in January 2024.
There is, of course, also better performance as global RevPAR increased 3%. The higher PBT is really a good flow-through from revenue. Notably, there was higher contribution from Grand Copthorne Waterfront, which was under renovation in first half of 2023, and Grand Hyatt Taipei, which recorded a very good 12.4% improvement in RevPAR. On investment properties, again, the increase is due to acquisition growth. For St Katharine Docks, it was acquired in March 2023. So for 2024, we had a full half year contribution. Jungceylon, the beautiful mall that we all went to recently, has reopened in phases from December 2022.
We had, of course, acquisition growth from living sector for Japan, U.K., as well as hotels, including the Nine Tree Premier Hotel Myeongdong II, as well as our Bespoke Hotel Osaka Shinsaibashi. Increase in PBT is mainly due to higher divestment gains from several core assets. Sherman has mentioned earlier, Citilink Warehouse Complex, Cititech Industrial Building, as well as Fortune Centre.
Delving a little bit deeper into the hotel operation segment, which reported 11% increase in revenue, 7% excluding the new acquisitions. This slide shows the RevPAR by region. So you will notice that we have removed references to pre-COVID years, as we have actually already exceeded pre-COVID years by more than 20%. Singapore, rest of Asia, both have increased RevPAR of 2.7%. Singapore is driven by higher occupancy. Rest of Asia is driven by higher rates. Australasia has an outsized RevPAR increase, 30.4%, due to addition of Sofitel Brisbane Central. New York also did a very good 6.3% RevPAR, as one of the New York hotels has strong airline base. London itself has a 2.4% decrease in RevPAR due to marginally lower rates in the first half of 2024. But having said that, London GOP margin is actually still the highest at 43%. Rest of U.K. and Europe, 3.8%.
With Olympics coming up, we do expect the second half, hopefully, to be a little bit better. With the backdrop of the RevPAR by regions, this slide shows the global RevPAR increase of 3%, driven by both occupancy and rate. GOP margins, I would say very, very good. We had improved 0.9 percentage points. Regions that do excellently well for GOP margins are Singapore and London. Next, we move on to revenue by segment. Revenue dropped 42%, I've mentioned earlier. Hotel operations and investment properties are both good acquisition growth. Investment properties increased due to the full contribution for, I mentioned, SKD, PBSA, and the two hotels. On this note, I just want to highlight that for the two hotels, which is Nine Tree Premier, as well as Bespoke Hotel in Osaka, they are master lease in nature, which is why they are recorded under this segment.
Next on EBITDA. EBITDA stands at SGD 456 million for first half 2024, comparable to 2023. EBITDA demonstrates strong cash generation. It's one focus area that we've looked very closely at. Our target is typically about SGD 1 billion of annual EBITDA. EBITDA for this property segment is a little bit lower this year, as made up for by the investment property segment. In this regard, wanted to emphasize again, the group is a real estate company across different geographies, and capital recycling is definitely part of our NDA. Lastly on PBT. PBT declined by 14%, again, due to the timing for property development. And of course, in the high financing cost, and of course, we still have this element of depreciation. Sounds like a broken record, but CDL accounts for our properties at cost, and we depreciate our properties vis-à-vis the fair value model.
While PBT has declined 14%, you will notice that our PATMI has actually increased 32%. This is because there's lower non-controlling interest in 2024 versus 2023. 2023, the major contributor was EC project, Piermont Grand, of which the group only owns 60%. So there was a 40% NCI in there. In terms of balance sheet, we continue to have strong and robust fundamentals. Strong cash of SGD 1.7 billion, committed credit facilities of SGD 3.7 billion. Gearing stands at 69%. This has increased from 61% in December, largely because of acquisitions of, say, the Hilton Paris Opéra, the living sector, as well as we have also paid up for the land betterment charges for Central Mall. Average borrowing costs increased from 4.3% to 4.5%.
We're heartened by the start of a rate cut by Bank of England, because most of our borrowings are either in Sing dollar, which is tied largely to Fed, and are in pounds. We certainly are waiting for the rate cuts, which will be positive for the group. In terms of debt expiry and debt currency mix, we have fairly balanced. For 2024, we have made arrangement for refinancing accordingly. 2025, we are also very confident because it relates largely to two projects which are very well-suited. In this regard, I also wanted to highlight that very recently in August, we actually raised a five-year SGD 200 million bond at 3.145%. This rate was very favorable. We took a good window for that, and we do look forward to issue more fixed rate notes in the coming 12 months to average down our interest rate.
Lastly, on foreign exchange risks. You know we adopt a natural hedging strategy. We do not take speculative positions. In terms of FX exposure in the key markets that we operate in, we are about 75% natural hedge. Once again, thank you, everyone, especially the bankers who have been supporting us. With that, I hand over to Belinda.
Thank you very much, Yim Ming and Sherman, for the overview presentation. We'd like to move to the second part of today's briefing, which is the Q&A. I have my colleagues that are standing around the room. Okay, I see the hands up. If they come to you, if you could just introduce yourself and the organization you represent. I'll just take from this side of the room first. I'll start with Mervin, then Yew Kiang , then Derek. Okay. In that order. Mervyn, please.
Hi, Mervin from JP Morgan. Maybe you can start on the divestments. It's a bit slower, which maybe market's a bit challenging, but do you have a realistic target for this year that can be achieved? Is it SGD 500 million, SGD 600 million, SGD 700 million? The second question is in terms of investments. We've bought more than we sold this year. Is there plans to maybe halt it given the elevated gearing this year until you sell more? In terms of borrowing costs, any reason why we haven't gone towards a more fixed rate temporarily? Because there is at least 100 basis points cost savings. Finally, in terms of the construction delays, any specific projects that is related to, and would this impact any margins? Thanks.
Okay. Can you hear me? Yeah. On borrowing costs, we are currently at 40%. Our borrowings are largely in two currencies, SGD as well as GBP. In terms of SGD, actually our fixed rate is high. It is probably at most 80%. It is more because for the GBP borrowings, if you recall, we wanted to divest our two U.K. properties into a REIT platform back in 2018, 2019, and that did not take off. That is why the exposure was opened. There was really no window to do that. As a reference point, the hedging cost for pound borrowers at that point could be as high as almost 7%. It is really not much difference from me holding out. Very recently in August, when England gave a rate cut of 25 basis points, we did think that is a positive sign.
There was really no window for us to close up our GBP borrowings.
Thanks, Yim Ming. Mervin, good morning. On the divestment side, a little bit hard for me to give you a concrete number. Back then when I threw out the SGD 1 billion, it was not a frivolous number. I was quite sure we will achieve it this year, but as you have mentioned, markets are a little bit tough now. There is always cautious buying sentiment. The good thing is that the properties that we are selling are very attractive. I think it is about finding the right buyer. I cannot give a very concrete number only because if one of the big ones happen this year, then all of a sudden, we are quite close to the SGD 1 billion target. If it does not, then it trickles in the next year. It is really a probability.
But certainly, there will be more divestments coming up later in the second half of this year. It is just a question of whether we can get to the SGD 1 billion. Okay, if I had to give you a number now, I would unfortunately, very embarrassingly, would have to reduce it. If I exclude all the big ones, I would say probably maybe about SGD 400 million or SGD 500 million, inclusive of what was done in the first half. But if things materialize, then hopefully we get to the full year target. On the investment side, we have already, I think, slowed down the pace of investments. You will see that the bulk of investments with the exception if I do not include the Hilton in Paris , the bulk of investments actually relate to Singapore, right?
Because the three PRS in Japan added together about what, SGD 60 million, SGD 70 million. So they are not very gigantic acquisitions. It is really things like the Zion Road. That was a very big acquisition. Of course, we also have JLD in the works, right? That's awarded. Obviously, we are one of five in the consortium, but that will have some implications. Yes, we have already slowed down the pace of investments quite very substantially already, and we are very cautious. I want to see the divestments kick into higher gear, I think before we start to really deploy capital.
I will preface this with a caveat, which is that if, as and when a very attractive investment opportunity comes along, I think we will still consider it seriously at the board level, and we will still pounce on it if we feel that the metrics are very attractive. Only because we still have the firepower and the holding power. Gearing has gone up from 61% to obviously 69% over the last six months due to all these sizable acquisitions.
I think we do have a plan to bring it back down to the low 60s or high 50s. Okay? That will take some time to get there. I would say, if all things go smoothly, by the end of next year, we should be back into the high 50s. That will depend on a lot of things working out. It also depends on whether we make any other acquisitions along the way that are sizable. Again, I wouldn't rule out investments and acquisitions, but we'll see. We are more cautious, a lot more cautious than last year. As you've already seen, the number has come down a lot from the SGD 2.4 that was deployed.
Lastly, for the construction thing, I've stayed away from naming specific projects because I don't want news to get out, and then the buyers are like, "Oh my god, the TOP is, handover is delayed." In some cases, it's a small delay. We're talking about maybe a month, or two. There are unfortunately, in some cases, in one specific case, it's longer than six months, which is not great. This is a result of various things, not really so much to do with CDL. Like in one case, it's because the contractor is very cash-strapped, so they don't have money to move forward. We've had to work with them to find ways to facilitate the construction. But it doesn't cause us extra. It doesn't increase our construction cost.
Aside from the fact that obviously if you drag it longer, it does take us, there's interest expense on this thing. Obviously, we will recognize the profits much later, depending on POC. Aside from that, in terms of actual additional costs, not too much more. It's more the timing of the profit recognition and handing over the units. But the good thing is we always build in buffers when we sign our sales and purchase agreements with our buyers. So we will still be within the time required to hand over units to them, but it's not great. Obviously, we want to finish, complete a project as quickly as possible and hand it over earlier.
Thank you.
Yew Kiang, maybe I move to you.
Yeah. Hi, Chairman. Hi, Sherman. Yew Kiang from CLSA. I have three questions. First one is, when I look at your property development PBT margin, first half 2023 was about 11%, 12%, and then this half was just 2%. Is it due to financing costs? Because when I look at, you have Lumina Grand that is almost fully sold. Should we expect that for the next two years, when you start to recognize those projects, the PBT will be very low as well? So that's the first question. Second question is on dividend fruit. Should we still expect an SGD 0.08 dividend for the full year, the final dividend of SGD 0.08 for second half? Third one is on Delfi Orchard. Post the deal, I think you have quite a number of projects there. Can you maybe share some plans?
What are the grand plans that we can sort of expect over there? Yeah. That's it.
Yep. Okay. For PBT margins, you are right, it is hit by financing costs. We must also be cognizant that in terms of accounting, what happens is that for my new projects, all my financing cost goes to P&L. So actually what you see in this bucket for property development segment includes the financing cost in entirety for all your new projects, which is Central Mall, Woodlands, Norwood, sorry, as well as Toa Payoh. So all the financing costs are actually in there with no corresponding income. That is why the margins are so eroded. Then going deeper into your question about Lumina Grand, it is actually a very profitable project. So very unlike other ECs where the margins are quite compressed, Lumina Grand margins are actually very, very good.
That is, you are right, all these unrecognized revenue, in the range of exceeding SGD 1 billion, largely for Canninghill Piers, Lumina Grand. These will flow in in the next one, two years. So for Lumina Grand, being an EC, will flow at completion, which is in 2026. So that was the margin question. For dividend wise, I think, we still want to at least at the very minimum, keep our dividend payout of 33%. So right now, we understand it is a little bit lower, but for full year, I think, if you look back at our history, we have always given SGD 0.08 dividend. That is kind of a little bit of charity, but we know with the dividend payout ratio, that is something that we also want to adhere to.
Lastly, on Delfi Orchard, it is still currently in progress. Nothing much we can do or announce at this moment. I think that one [audio distortion].
Sorry. Since we are on the topic of dividend, I have a question that came in through the webcast. It is actually from Joy Wang, from HSBC. So on your thoughts on leverage and ICR, how would the cash flow look in second half, and would full year dividend be dependent on your divestment gains?
For leverage, I think we are at 69%. Sherman has indicated that our investments were going a little bit slower. Divestment is certainly our priority. We do hope to bring gearing to a better level. In terms of ICR, we are currently at 2x . Not the prettiest obviously, but definitely not a case of liquidity issues. I think, we have to look at ICR. I mean, it's a definitely important financial metric to look at, but we are not a REIT. We are a real estate player. If you look at property development, right, you imagine if I'm a real estate player who buy three pieces of land, my ICR is going to be zero, zero, until obviously when I recognize profits on the property development. I think the context is a little bit different.
I think really in terms of you're looking at liquidity issues and all that's absolutely out of the window. There's no issue with that. But we are cognizant that ICR is a little bit low, which is why years ago we have always wanted to try to shore up recurring income. Which is also why in the last few years we have all these acquisitions for hotels and IPs as well. Lastly, for full year dividend, yes, if Sherman closes his SGD 1 billion divestment target with a huge divestment gain or at item sure that with the dividend payout ratio, we will also have a better dividend.
I mean, we have committed, I think since 2018, that we will maintain it at around a 1/3 payout ratio. That's not dependent on the divestments, but obviously if we have any outsize divestments, we'll be happy to share it with our shareholders.
Okay. Maybe I'll move to Derek. Yeah.
Yeah. Hey, good morning. Derek from DBS here. I got three questions. First one is on land banking. I look at what you have currently on your books, very attractive strategic sites. I am just wondering whether should we be thinking about the group hitting and selling down the sites first before we land bank once again. So your thoughts on that would be helpful. The second question is on your PRS sector. So I understand that it is about SGD 2.7 billion GDV, right? Could you give us a sense of what is stabilized yield in the medium term? And at this moment, is it a positive carry or negative carry? Then my last question is on hotels. I mean, we have been hearing that first half has been a little bit softer from other players.
Just wondering, do we have a sense on what is the second half RevPAR outlook looking like? Thank you.
Thank you, Derek. Appreciate you complimenting our land bank as well. Yes, I think we are really happy with the land bank we have right now. We are always cognizant not to be overexposed. So you will see that in recent tenders, whether it is Margaret Drive, or other stuff, we did not participate. So I think we are pretty happy with our land bank. Again, not to say that if there is a very, very strong attractive project that comes up, we will not go for it. But recent tenders like the EC side as well in Pasir Ris, as well as Margaret Drive, all that, I mean, we stayed out.
So I think, we will be very, very selective. But currently we are very happy what we have, and if we do get awarded JLD, then that is a really big mega project that will stretch on for the next 10- 13 years. Right? So, in terms of our PRS yields, our multifamily yields, so far I would say, we are very pleased with it. But to be quite honest, in a high interest rate environment, right? Many projects that are doing well, even if the yield is above 5%, may not be able to cover the financing cost. So we do need interest rates to be more favorable. Right now, I would say, on a blended basis across regions, U.S., we only have one property.
That, I would say the current yield is a high 4%s, just shy of 5%. I would say that for Australia, these two are under development right now, under construction. So not completed, but the projected yield will be in the high 4%s, let us say 4.8%, 4.9%, thereabouts. U.K., we have a completed project in Leeds as well as others under development, but those we are looking at about 5%.
For our student accommodation, we are probably looking at about in place yield right now, about 5.25%. For Japan, it will be lower because of the 40 properties that we own, 38 which are in operation. The bulk are in Tokyo. As you know, Tokyo yields are a lot more compressed. Our borrowing has been at sub one for almost the entire portfolio. We are looking at a blended across all 40 properties of about mid threes. Let's call it 3.5%.
Okay. I think that's not.
Yes. I wanted to say that we depreciate our properties, so they are still at 2% over 50 years. There is still a depreciation impact, which kind of cause it to be a negative carry. That's a P&L impact.
Sorry, just to answer on the hotel question. I think for the rest of the year, we [audio distortion] strong growth, and we do expect that to continue for the rest of the year. Singapore, I think what we saw earlier, it's a little bit of [audio distortion] tourists come, we see very strong, and then during the rest of the period, it kind of lulls a bit. I think a bit softer on Singapore for this year.
Okay. Actually, I also have another question. It is actually directed for Chairman Kwek. Chairman, this is a question from Forbes Asia, Ian Sayson, which submitted it through the webcast. It says here: Can Chairman Kwek please comment or share your rationale behind why the company continues to buy assets when interest rates are high and there is heightened macroeconomic headwinds around you? Maybe you want to give us some flavor over the acquisition of, say, the Paris Hilton , for example.
I think I am looking at a bigger picture. What you want to know is that we cannot go on and say that because the world is bad, that we shut down our business. Business has always to be going on. I seize opportunity when everybody gets frightened, and I will zero in. But of course, this is easier said than done. You have to have the courage, have the instinct, and you must be a doer. But if you just say, "Let me do A, B, C. I follow everybody," then you will not be successful, I am afraid. I am not afraid of the interest rate being high because I believe it is coming down. The world cannot sustain such a high interest rate for a long time.
You have heard in U.S., certain parts of U.S., even U.K., and all this, the temperature has gone up a lot. So much so that you feel that the world is upside down. But having said that, I always feel that there are opportunities, but you must look at the bigger picture. It is easier said than done. Opportunity comes once knocking at your door, but it doesn't mean that forever it will knock at your door. You must know how to seize it. For me, where the scenario is bad, I find that this is a good opportunity. You must know how to package it, how to read it. It is easier said than done. But I have done it for many years. Today, I am confident I can do it again and again.
Thank you, Chairman, for your insights. I am just going to move on to the floor. I will just take Terence, then later I will take Vijay, yeah? Terence first.
Hi. Terence from UBS. My first question is, Yim Ming, how would you guide for borrowing costs for 2024 and 2025?
For 2024, our budget was about in the range of 4.7%- 4.8%. I do not expect it to cross, to be very frank. 2025, when we were looking at, we were actually still looking at. We were optimistic, I would say. When we were looking at budgets, we were looking at least a 25 basis points- 50 basis points cut. But I think the signaling will probably be more apparent in the September meetings. I think the 2025 question, I will answer a little bit later.
Okay. Second question on the divestment strategy. I always thought that some of these legacy assets that CDL looks to divest, they typically afford you quite a bit of wiggle room to be flexible on the price. That is what I presumed. If so, what has been the key challenge in bringing these divestments across the finish line? Thank you.
We are flexible on the price. But having said that, if it is a priced asset, which may even be freehold in nature, you do not want to just give it away at a bargain basement price just because I want to hit my divestment target and I committed to it. I want to extract the best value for CDL and for our shareholders. So obviously, I am still going to ensure I get a good price for it, be it in Singapore or an overseas asset. So, A, that takes time, I think, to find the right buyer. B, I think as you can see right now, the overall environment has not been good. We are all suffering from this macroeconomic environment. So there is a lot of investor caution going on right now. So I think I would say that accounts for a part of it as well.
Some investors that I think before all this interest rate hike started, that would have easily pounced on some of the stuff that we have, would probably be holding back now or taking a wait and see approach, right? Not unlike even some buyers in the Singapore residential market too, right? I think when interest rates are high and when economic conditions are uncertain, people tend to wait and see. Also because our assets are, be it in Singapore or overseas, some of them are very highly priced. So we do not go ahead and conduct a huge expression of interest and engage agents to market it. I think we will discuss internally and carefully select who we want to approach. Therefore, this news is quite well-contained.
I think with a selective approach, it is going to be slower than if I ran a beauty pageant and invited 10 people to come and bid for it. So therein lies the reasons that I think between why it is taking a bit more time. But I think we owe it as a responsibility to our shareholders to extract maximum value from whatever divestments I am doing, rather than sell it for the sake of selling it just so I make my target. Therefore, I think we will continue with this approach.
Okay. I am going to move down. Vijay, maybe.
Hi. Vijay from RHB. I have three questions. My first question is in terms of property development. I think market seems to have softened a bit in terms of sell-through rate for new launches. Probably, what is your expectations for sales for your new projects in the upcoming launches? Also there seems to be a trend of developers pushing back on their launches. Is this a concern in terms of more projects coming at a similar point of time, and you would have a weaker demand or a pricing expectations? That is my first question. Maybe I will take it one by one.
Sure. Thank you, Vijay. On the property development side. Sorry, what was the first question? I was thinking on the second question.
Oh, market soften. Okay. In terms of sell-through rate for new projects, that I really cannot give you a firm answer, because I think it depends on what type of project is it, right? Is it an EC? Is it a mass market or suburban project, or is it a high-end luxury? It will also depend on where the location is. You can see our Piermont Grand. We still have a very strong, in a matter of slightly over half a year, we have sold close to 80% already, right? In a short period of time. It really depends what kind of project it is and where it is located. Obviously, we have been affected by, let us say, the 60% ABSD on foreigners. That has caused foreign buying sentiment to more or less dry up. You do not see a lot of those buyers right now.
I think if you have luxury projects in the core central region, in the CCR, those may be affected more greatly because you are really then relying on locals to buy, because not many foreigners are willing to pay up the hefty 60%. I think it is hard to say it, but in general, as I presented earlier during the presentation, yes, this year we have seen a decreased volume. As I said, for the first half this year, we have not even hit 2,000 units, right? Markedly behind what the previous years would have been. But we still have hopes. But again, as I mentioned earlier, that also is due to the fact that there were less new launches for this year, right? We had almost 1,000 units less of new launch units this year compared to last year.
But, as the year progresses, I think we should see the market start to catch up. I still hope that we will end with 5,000 to 6,000 units for the whole Sing- resi market for this year. In terms of developers pushing back, to be quite honest, aside from our own pushback of, let's say, Newport, where we don't have a time pressure from ABSD, I would say that majority of developers do not want to push back. You are paying financing costs on this land. You want to launch it as soon as possible, and then you have a five-year ABSD. You want to sell out as soon as possible, and you don't want to risk hitting ABSD timelines because the penalties are far too onerous. Therefore, I don't think any developer would voluntarily hold back on the launch.
It just would not be advisable to do so. Same, aside from Newport, we haven't done that with our other projects. As soon as it's ready, I think we go out and launch it. We can't afford to just hold it back. So I don't think you'll see too much of that happening.
Actually, the sub-sale market is quite active because of the less launches in the new launches. So the sub-sale market is quite active. Also like Sherman said, I think most of the project were pushed back, not because they wanted to, but because of the tedious planning process. So it takes more while. For example, you see our Kassia will launch in July, the take up was 52%, which is very good. So it depends on location and also the quality of the project. Yeah. So it's quite important that you must have these good factors to garner good sales. Thank you.
Now my second question is in terms of fund management business, I think earlier you had a target of about SGD 5 billion to reach. Understandably, the scale-up has been a bit slow. Maybe can you share a bit more in terms of, is there a new target for this business? Also, is there any plans to make this business more asset light rather than carrying it in a balance sheet, all these assets? Would that be a REIT form or a private form which you are looking at? My last question is, I think in terms of U.K. market, I remember you have two residential sites which you acquired in the past. Has this all been sold, all been cleared?
Okay, on the second question on fund management, yes, Vijay, as highlighted earlier, I think we do want to make our business, at least a portion of a business, more asset light. We are trying to accelerate things ahead. We are looking at various formats, both listed and unlisted. On the private side, we are looking at some PE funds for some of our assets. On the listed side, obviously, we can either form a new REIT as what we tried to do with our U.K. commercial properties but weren't successful back then. Or we can inject them into existing REITs, and doesn't have to be REITs that are managed by us. But overall, we are looking to accelerate the fund management side quite substantially. We've warehoused enough on our balance sheet already. The problem is that right now it's just a high interest rate environment.
There's investor caution and obviously yield requirements are a lot more stiff. Capital markets just aren't favorable. I think we all have seen that. So, it will take some time, but as the clouds clear, I think we're going to start seeing some nice runways for us to progress down. Lastly, on the U.K. side, good question you have asked because as part of our divestments, many of these legacy U.K. residential sites that either have been unable to obtain planning approval or have been slow, I think, to sell. I think we are looking at various ways to do a bulk disposal of some of these sites. That's underway. Obviously, the sites that we have bought for PRS, for our build to rent and stuff, those we are continuing ahead with, and those are still actually doing okay.
Well, not so okay in this high interest rate environment, but as Yim Ming mentioned, we have already interest rate cuts from the Bank of England, from the BOE, so I think things should gradually get better. But for all the legacy for sale resi sites, yes, we are looking at clearing them. In fact, for some of them, we have already appointed agents. So we're getting offers that are coming in. I think we should start to unlock more cash coming back to the group pretty soon. Otherwise, all this is idle capital that is just not serving any purpose, inefficiently tied up in these sites.
Okay. Dex. Okay, maybe I'll take Dex. Just before Dexter poses the questions for the media friends in the room, we are unlikely to be doing any door stops later. So if you have any questions, please pose them. Dexter, why don't you start?
Hi, morning. One question on ABSD. In terms of your working assumption right now, are your working assumption that ABSD is here to stay, especially the 60% stamp duty on foreigners? If that's the case, are you adjusting any strategies? For example, I know that you have done the discounts in terms of Sentosa, for example. Is that the strategy going forward to kind of price lower and you expect prices to come down going forward? On a question on divestment. Would it be safe to assume that most of the divestments that coming down the pipeline will be from Singapore and the U.K.?
Okay. The ABSD. I think we are quite hopeful that the government will consider at some point of time. Following for earlier session with the government during the budget time, we do put up a strong case on a five-year period where the penalties very heavy. They do give some discount during the budget time. So long as you sell up to certain percentage, they give you a reduced rate of ABSD. Looks like they are listening. More recently, when the representation was made by the association, the Real Estate Developers' Association of Singapore, they do give cut down on the second half number units launch on a confirmed lease, 7% reduction, which is a good sign, you see. Otherwise, the past few quarter is all up, up. This quarter, they bring down 7%. Looks like they are listening.
We are hopeful that along the way, they will continue to listen. I think many of the industry professionals, agents, and other agencies also have put up representation with government, especially on a 60%, which is I think is no good for everybody. Government get much less stamp duty now. You can see from Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore report. At the same time, there's so few buying and investors are not coming to Singapore. It's not a good sign. Hopefully with all this kind of reasoning, they would consider seriously. Thank you.
Your second question on divestments. By the way, good answer, Mr. Ngiang. Second question on divestments, no, it's not just Singapore and the U.K. Don't forget we have sizeable portfolios in China, and Japan, and Australia. Well, Australia is smaller, but China and Japan as well. Can come from any of those.
Just one follow-up. In terms of your stock price, obviously you guys have done buyback, you guys have put out your own target. That hasn't seemed to work so far, and I'm not sure the MSCI Index drop as well. I'm just wondering, do you guys have any plans or any thoughts about how to lift the stock? Have you ever seriously considered delisting, for example? Thanks.
No, we've never considered delisting CDL, and probably would have no intention of doing so. Look, we do share buybacks because we find our shares are deeply undervalued, and us investing in our own shares is one of the best investments if you put it alongside other investments you can do right now. Especially since, as I mentioned earlier, this is a business that by right we should know best. As a side bonus, if the share price goes up, that's great. But really, our share buyback rationale is not because we're trying to lift the share price. That is not the right intention. But yes, we would like to see an improved share price. The deletion from the index definitely wasn't helpful. I think that definitely there are many institutional shareholders that can't buy companies that are not within the index, so that reduces further your institutional support.
But for us, it's about execution. I think as we move ahead with our GET strategy, we will focus on really doing sharp, excellent execution, and I feel that as we successfully execute on all our various initiatives, that should help to be the catalyst for the share price going forward.
Yeah. Mindful of the time, so I'm just going to take one or two more. Maybe with [ Guha]. Why don't you start off?
Hi. Thanks. Thanks for taking my question. Can we just check, what is the NPI yield of the three London commercial properties on a blended basis? Your Aldgate, I think you had, and St Katharine Docks, and Old Broad Street. I must ask this question. Are these going to be offered to IREIT? That's the first question. If you could. The second one is on the legacy U.K. assets. I think you had a few. I think there were about three or four of them. But what sort of pricing? How much do you think you can get for them in the current market? Then last question is, I'm just wondering, what's the strategy regarding First Sponsor? Which your event fund company. Yeah.
For three U.K. commercial properties, blended yield is in the range about 5%. It's still a little bit small short of our borrowing cost right now. In terms of IREIT, as far as I know, it's still a more a pan-European kind of mandate. Yeah. So it might not be very suitable, and obviously the portfolio size are also quite different. Yeah.
Hello? Yep. I think on the U.K. portfolio, I think some of the bigger sites that are still waiting for planning, I think they're still in progress. So I think it really depends on the outcome of that planning. So it's difficult for me to give you a number today. But on the rest, yeah, I think it is market value. Obviously, we do have to take some impairments from time to time. So I think if we can achieve those kind of values or higher, of course, we will push for those. Yeah. Sponsor.
I think First Sponsor, while we are not exactly in a controlling position for that. They've recently announced a rights issue. And we've also come out to say that we are supportive of that. They are quite different from us. They have obviously focused in China originally. Not so much in the tier one cities, but really more in like I would say tier two. In addition to that, they've also expanded into the Netherlands in Europe. So I think they do play in a different space from us. I guess there are some synergies between the two groups. We do have a joint venture with them in Frankfurt for one of the hotels as well. Okay.
Sorry, just to close up. Just to be sure. In term of First Sponsor, both Tai Tak Estates and us are sponsors, and then in term of percentage, we probably own about 37%. It'll be accounted for as associate.
Okay. Thanks. Thanks, Yim Ming. I don't see any hands up, so I'm just going to ask one last question, which came out in the webcast. It's actually a follow-up question from Yuan of Forbes Asia. Since we were on that positive note that Chairman mentioned about the acquisition of the Hilton Paris hotel . How did the group's hotels in Paris perform during the recent Olympics, for example? So maybe some upside questions from there.
I'm glad you corrected yourself, and it's the Hilton Paris, okay? It's not the Paris Hilton. So during the Olympics, I think obviously there were some concerns at the beginning. A lot of reports saying that, oh, people are leaving Paris. People don't want to go Paris during the Olympics. Then there were some issues then, riots at the beginning. So we were a bit concerned whether we'll hit those targets.
But so far, at least early part of August, I think we're pretty happy with what we've seen. We have two hotels in central Paris. We have the M Social Paris, which was the original Millennium Opéra . That's very near to Galeries Lafayette. Nearby also is the recently acquired Hilton Paris. So those two hotels have done really high occupancies during this period, and I would say the RevPAR easily between 60% to over 100% compared to the same time last year. So I think that's a very good sign. We're pretty positive that Paris will continue to attract tourists there. So yeah, I think that's a bright spot for us.
Is there any more on the floor? If not, then I know I'm standing in between you and lunch, and there's also refreshments outside. On behalf of the management team and my fellow colleagues at CDL, I just want to say a huge thank you, and also thank you for all your support, especially also those that have joined us on live webcast. Thank you, guys. And refreshments are served outside as well. Thank you.