Good morning, welcome to the Jardine Matheson 2022 full year results webcast. I'm John Witt, Group Managing Director of Jardine Matheson, and I am joined today by Graham Baker, Group Finance Director. You should be able to see the slides on your screen. We'll leave plenty of time at the end for Q&A. If you'd like to ask a question, please press the Submit Question button on your screen at any time. I'll start this morning with an overview of the group and our progress against our strategic priorities. Graham will cover the financial performance of the group and our individual businesses. We'll finish with the group's outlook. Starting with a quick recap of the group, we continue to be focused on China and Southeast Asia, and have a portfolio of market-leading businesses across geographies and sectors.
Our diverse portfolio generates strong cash flows and enables us to deliver resilient performance across cycles. We continue to strengthen our position in the fast-growing markets of Asia and in industries where we can establish market-leading positions to create long-term value and ensure sustainable growth. Over the long term, we expect both China and Southeast Asia to make balanced contributions to our growth and earnings. We follow a core set of investment principles, which have allowed us to successfully grow our business over time. We invest in sectors where we see long-term value and growth potential, principally in markets and sectors we understand and led by people we know and trust. We evolve our portfolio to reflect the changing environment in which we operate and customer needs and have invested in new sectors and businesses or divested non-core businesses and exited sectors when appropriate.
Our key characteristics set us apart from others. Our long-term strategic approach, ability to create enduring partnerships, localized knowledge and relationships, financial strength, and our active and engaged ownership of our portfolio companies. Turning to our capital allocation approach, we prioritize organic investment in our portfolio to drive long-term earnings growth and returns. We are committed to the continued progression of dividend payments as our earnings grow over time. Beyond that, we review M&A opportunities in new businesses and consider increasing investments in existing group companies, including through share buybacks. All of this is supported by maintaining strong investment-grade credit metrics, which gives us the confidence and flexibility to invest where we see the right opportunities, even at times of financial dislocation. Looking now at the progress we have made in the past year against our strategic priorities.
Firstly, we have continued to evolve our portfolio to reflect the changing environment in which we operate and to ensure sustainable business growth over the long term. Following the simplification in 2021 of the group's parent company structure, we have continued in 2022 and into 2023 to evolve the group's portfolio and lay the foundations for future growth. We have made a number of disposals of non-strategic businesses. This January, we entered an agreement to sell our stake in Greatview. In February, DFI Retail Group agreed to sell its food businesses in Malaysia. In March, the group expects to complete the sale of its motors business in the United Kingdom. More importantly, during 2022, we made several new strategic investments in high-growth areas.
We expanded our footprint in digital banking through Astra's investment in Bank Jasa Jakarta, began to position ourselves in healthcare services through our investments in Halodoc and Hermina Hospital Group. We also pursued our strategy of diversifying into other minerals and renewable energy, with Astra entering the nickel mining and processing business and making further investments in power generation. Our businesses in Vietnam continued to invest in renewable energy. As of December 2022, hydro, wind, and solar energy sources accounted for nearly three-quarters of REE's energy portfolio. To drive future profitability, we are continuing to make material investments across our business portfolio. The development of Hongkong Land's prime mixed-use project on Shanghai's West Bund is progressing well.
We are creating an iconic development, unprecedented scale in the city, where the finished site will extend to over 1.1 million square meters, more than twice our entire central portfolio in Hong Kong. It will provide a wide range of retail, office, residential, and leisure amenities. In Indonesia, Astra is making significant investments in the infrastructure sector and now has interest in nearly 400 kilometers of operational toll roads. We expect this business to be a significant driver of future profits. The group continues to drive innovation and operational excellence. Strong progress has been made in improving efficiency and productivity across our operations. Our B2C businesses are building their digital capabilities to better serve customer needs. DFI Retail's yuu customer loyalty program in Hong Kong now has more than 4 million members.
You has also recently been launched in Singapore with a range from the new Hong Kong International Airport Terminal to the M+ Museum in West Kowloon. JEC's AI-powered digital platform, JEDI, uses data-driven insights to improve energy efficiency in buildings, delivering better experience for end users. We also focus on having the right leadership and talent in place, on embedding an entrepreneurial culture across the group. We see it as essential to appoint highly qualified, experienced senior executives to drive business growth. Last year, we appointed two new Jardine Matheson Limited directors to lead our business development efforts across China and Southeast Asia. At the same time, there's a strong focus on supporting the development of leaders across Jardines through cross-group moves. Continuous learning and development are a key focus, we provide comprehensive learning opportunities to colleagues at all levels across the group.
We are focused on developing a diverse and inclusive culture across Jardines. We recognize there is more to do to build greater diversity at all levels of the group, but we made good progress last year in implementing our D&I strategy. Finally, we continue to drive a more aligned, focused approach to sustainability across our businesses, prioritizing progress on our climate action agenda. We published our inaugural group sustainability report last June, which consolidated key metrics across the group and included TCFD-aligned disclosures. We also made a commitment to support a just energy transition by diversifying into non-coal minerals and renewable energy. As I noted earlier, effective steps are already being taken to drive progress in this area.
Creating emotional engagement among our colleagues and other stakeholders continues to be an important aspect of implementing an effective sustainability approach. We saw an acceleration in volunteering activity during the year. We also celebrated significant milestones for our education and health strategies with the Jardine Foundation celebrating its 40th anniversary of supporting access to higher education, and MINDSET marking 20 years since it started its focus on promoting mental health in the community. Graham will now take you through the financial highlights for the year. Graham?
Thanks, John. Hello, everyone. Starting at group level, 2022 saw total revenue for the year of $37.7 billion, up 5%. Underlying net profit of $1.6 billion, also up 5%, and back to pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Underlying earnings per share of $5.49, an increase of 14%. The board is recommending an increased final dividend of $1.60 per share, producing a full year dividend for 2022, $2.15 per share, up 8% on the prior year. This is consistent with our well-established and unchanged commitment to progress the dividend as earnings grow. Looking at earnings in a little more detail, the chart shows that both underlying profit and underlying earnings per share benefited significantly from the simplification of the group's shareholding structure.
This benefit all arose in the H1 of 2022 as the transaction annualized fully following completion in April 2021. I'd also note that our reported 2022 underlying earnings growth of 5% and underlying earnings per share growth of 14% both offset a considerable foreign exchange headwind on the strength of the U.S. dollar. Growth of underlying earnings at constant exchange rates was 9%, and underlying earnings per share was 18%. With a second year of very solid performance against the backdrop of a still highly pandemic-constrained environment in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, the value of Jardines' diversified portfolio showed itself again in 2022. Looking across the businesses, 2022 saw a record contribution from Astra. However, a return to profit at Mandarin Oriental and continued growth at JC&C also made significant contributions.
I'll cover each of the businesses in turn later. For now, we'll just make two further points here. First, higher group corporate costs in 2019 principally reflect higher parent financing costs as a result of the acquisition of Jardine Strategic. In 2022, higher corporate costs also reflect unrealized mark-to-market losses on certain investment funds, reversing similar unrealized gains recorded in the prior year. Second, while the group's recovery since the 2020 pandemic low has clearly benefited from its broad diversification, earnings from a number of our businesses, notably DFI Retail Group, Hongkong Land, Mandarin Oriental, and the consumer-facing businesses in Jardine Pacific, still remained below 2019 levels in 2022. Nevertheless, looking back over the period as a whole since 2019, the group has grown underlying earnings per share by 30% and dividends per share by 25%. These progressions reflect two main factors.
Firstly, once again, the broad diversification of the portfolio. Secondly, the returns we've made to shareholders through both share buybacks and purchases within the group, including the privatization of Jardine Strategic early in 2021. Setting aside the impact of buybacks and group share purchases, underlying profits across our business as a whole still sit marginally below where they did in 2019. While softening commodity prices may weigh on near-term performance, much of the potential from cyclical recovery still sits ahead of us. Returning to our 2022 results, outside underlying earnings, we booked a net non-trading loss of $1.2 billion compared to a net non-trading gain of $368 million in 2021. Around half of this was unrealized non-cash losses on the regular mark-to-market valuation of the group's investment properties in Hongkong Land and Mandarin Oriental.
The loss of $309 million recorded on other investments reflects similar non-cash mark-to-market revaluations of the group's listed investments in Vinamilk, Toyota Motor Corporation, Schindler Holdings, and GoTo, which didn't escape the wider market downturns of 2022. The group also made a number of impairment provisions totaling $345 million in 2022, principally against its associate investments. Moving to the balance sheet. The group's net borrowings at 31st December, excluding financial services, were $7.5 billion, and gearing was 13% compared to 11% at the end of 2021. At Jardine Matheson Corporate, the small increase in net borrowings at the end of December mainly reflected share buybacks and the acquisition of shares in JC&C. John has already referred to a number of transactions which we expect to reduce parent company borrowing in 2023.
Turning now to cash and liquidity. Cash flow from operations was lower in 2022, with higher operating profits and dividends from associates and joint ventures offset by increases in working capital and tax paid, which in turn reflected recovering trading conditions and growth, principally in Astra. Investing cash flows rose significantly in 2022 to $2 billion as Hongkong Land made successful land bids and increased development expenditure on the Chinese mainland, and Astra increased investment in fixed assets, particularly in the heavy equipment and mining division. Capital investments in 2022 also reflected the acquisition of a 49.6% stake in Bank Jasa Jakarta and investments in new healthcare and digital businesses by Astra. Overall, the group's businesses continue to be cash generative, supported by strong balance sheets.
On liquidity, the group has significant undrawn committed borrowing facilities and substantial capacity to deploy capital to finance future growth. We'll now briefly go through the individual performance of each business. For more detailed analysis, you can access the results briefings of most of our business units via our Jardine's corporate website. Jardine Pacific produced an underlying net profit of $182 million, 4% higher than 2021. This was driven by good performance from the B2B businesses, while the group's consumer businesses continued to be impacted by pandemic restrictions in Hong Kong. It also reflected reporting Zung Fu Hong Kong's results for the full year following its transfer into Jardine Pacific in October 2021. Jardine Schindler's earnings grew 12%, while JEC delivered 9% profit growth, largely from its Hong Kong businesses.
JEC also saw strong levels of new work secured, leading to a record order book at the year-end. Gammon's performance remained in line with 2021, with its forward order book also at record levels. In our transport services business, Hactl's performance was weaker, mainly due to lower volumes as export demand softened. Jardine Aviation reported a higher loss due to lower flight volumes. Although these started to recover towards the year end as pandemic restrictions started to ease in Hong Kong. Among Jardine Pacific's consumer-facing businesses, Restaurant delivered lower results overall, mainly due to the pandemic disruption in Hong Kong. As mentioned, Zung Fu Hong Kong was managed by Jardine Pacific starting from October 2021, hence the reported increase in profit in 2022.
On a full year basis, though, underlying profits in Zung Fu Hong Kong were down 48% as after-sales activities were affected by the pandemic and supply constraints impacted passenger car deliveries. Jardine Motors recorded an underlying net profit of $299 million, 6% lower than the prior year, principally reflecting the sale of Zung Fu China to Zhongsheng in October 2021. Results benefited from the group's 21% interest in Zhongsheng, with the business recording strong performance in its used car operations. As in prior years, the group has recognized in 2022 its share of Zhongsheng's results based on the publicly available information for the 12 months ended 30th of June, i.e., Zhongsheng's published results for the H2 of 2021 and H1 of 2022.
Recognizing the growing importance of Zhongsheng to the group's performance, from 2023, we intend to recognize our share of Zhongsheng's results on a contemporaneous calendar year basis using, if necessary, an estimate of Zhongsheng's current year results based on recent analyst forecasts. Moving forwards, we believe this change will provide a more meaningful insight into the current year underlying performance of the group. The group's UK Motor business delivered a slightly lower profit in 2022, mainly due to unfavorable exchange rates. Despite constrained supply, both the new and used car businesses saw strong margins. As noted by John, the group expects to complete sale of the UK Motors business later this month. Turning now to Hongkong Land. Underlying profit was $776 million, 20% below the prior year.
This was primarily due to an expected lower profit contribution from the development properties business on the Chinese Mainland in the H2 , reflecting fewer planned sales completions. However, it also reflected the impact of pandemic-related restrictions on construction activities, which intensified in the H2 . The group continues to focus exclusively on tier I and tier II cities. It made two acquisitions in 2022, a largely residential site in the Xuhui District adjacent to our mixed-use project on the West Bund in Shanghai, and an interest in a mixed-use commercial site in Suzhou. The Suzhou project continues the group's strategy of developing luxury and premium lifestyle retail properties on the Chinese Mainland. The performance of the investment properties business remained resilient. The group's central office portfolio in Hong Kong outperformed the broader market due to its prime location and premium offering.
The Hong Kong retail portfolio was impacted by pandemic measures in the first half, but saw an improvement in the H2 as restrictions began to relax. In Singapore, contributions from the group's office portfolio increased. 2022 was another very challenging year for DFI Retail, with first half performance impacted by changes in customer behaviors and inflationary pressures, especially in grocery retail and convenience. The group's largest associates, Yonghui and Maxim's, faced similar challenges. There was, however, a significant improvement in profitability in the H2 . Grocery retail saw weaker performance in 2022, mainly due to the absence of panic buying seen in the prior year, combined with rising inflation. Performance, however, was significantly above 2019 levels, indicating the benefits of the group's ongoing transformation initiatives.
The convenience business saw profitability improve significantly in the H2 , and full year results were broadly in line with the prior year, but well below 2019 levels. Health and beauty reported strong performance driven by solid sales growth. Nonetheless, the business continued to be adversely impacted by movement restrictions into Hong Kong, particularly from the mainland, and profits are also substantially below 2019. IKEA performed slightly ahead of last year due to strong cost control, with supply constraints fading as the year progressed, but footfall still well down. The group's associates contributed an underlying loss of $35 million. The share of losses from its investment in Yonghui in 2022 was $80 million, compared with a loss of $90 million in 2021 and a $23 million profit in 2019.
Maxims, which was impacted by the fifth wave of the pandemic in Hong Kong, contributed an underlying net profit of $38 million in 2022, compared with $52 million in 2021, and $82 million in 2019. The group's luxury hotel business, Mandarin Oriental, continued its recovery in 2022 as travel restrictions lifted across most of the world. The group reported an underlying profit of $8 million for the full year, its first profit since 2019. Owned hotels in most locations saw improved occupancy at strong rates, but the properties in Hong Kong and Tokyo were still heavily impacted by the pandemic. The management business, particularly in resort destinations, grew strongly and has a high quality pipeline of 26 projects to be completed in the next five years. Turning now to the group's interests in Southeast Asia.
Jardine Cycle & Carriage's underlying profit was 39% higher than last year at $1.1 billion with strong performances from Astra, THACO, and Direct Motor interests. THACO contributed a 34% higher profit of $83 million. Its automotive business continued to grow strongly, supported by higher production levels and good margins. THACO also continues to invest in developing a substantial new agribusiness segment. Direct Motor interests saw a 62% increase in underlying profit, with improved results in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. During the year, JC&C further increased its interest in Cycle & Carriage Bintang in Malaysia to nearly 97%. The group's other strategic interests made a slightly lower contribution, mainly due to weaker performance by Siam City Cement, which was adversely impacted by higher energy costs and inflationary pressure.
REE, however, saw a 70% increase in its contribution due to an improved performance in renewable energy. Astra delivered record earnings with strong recovery of the Indonesian economy and higher commodity prices, driving stronger performances across the group. Automotive's contribution grew to $297 million, reflecting good performance both in the four-wheel and two-wheel wholesale segments, and Astra Otoparts saw profits rise by 117%. The wholesale car market increased by 18%, Astra maintained a stable market share at 55%. The wholesale motorcycle market increased by 3%, Astra Honda Motor saw its sales increase, although growth was limited by chip shortages, leading to a slight fall in market share. The group's financial services division saw higher contributions from its consumer finance businesses with positive new business flow and continued strong management of credit risk.
The contribution from the heavy equipment, mining, construction, and energy business increased by 95% to $424 million as unprecedented coal prices benefited all parts of the supply chain. Agribusiness saw a slight decrease, largely due to lower crude palm oil sales volumes and production, which offset an increase in selling prices. The group's infrastructure and logistics business saw a significant rise in net income, primarily due to improved traffic levels on its toll road interests. We expect infrastructure to be a growing contributor to Astra's net income in future years as past investments come into use. I'll now hand back to John to cover the group's outlook.
Thanks, Graham. Overall, I've been encouraged by the continued recovery in 2022. This was despite many of our businesses in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland being held back by the continued impact of the pandemic. Going forward, we are optimistic that the reopening of borders as well as opportunities in Southeast Asia will drive the group's cyclical recovery during 2023. The pace of recovery may be affected by evolving consumer sentiment on the Chinese mainland and softening commodity prices. In the midterm, we see further promising opportunities as activity returns to property markets in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. We remain confident in our strategy for sustainable long-term value creation and profit growth. Thank you for your time today. We'll now take your questions. Please press the Submit Question button on your screen if you have a question.
I'm just looking down, Graham, at the questions. I think there might be a little lag. I'm also aware that I think many of you will have had your opportunity to ask very specific business unit related questions at the various briefings held over the past few days.
Perhaps people are a little shy today, John.
Indeed. I think there are being none on the screen, Graham. I wonder if there are any follow-up questions, I think your details are well known to all. I'm going to thank again you for all joining our presentation this morning, and we'll look forward to seeing you over the next very exciting year ahead. Thank you very much.