Good afternoon, distinguished guests, ladies, and gentlemen.

I have the great honour to address so many distinguished guests and bankers today at the signing ceremony for this 5-year HKD23 billion Term Loan and Revolving Credit Facility. The Facility has been massively subscribed by a wide spectrum of 23 lenders from an initial amount of HKD5 billion to HKD24.3 billion at the arrangers’ co-ordination stage. The overwhelming response is a very strong vote of confidence in our Group and the future of Hong Kong.

The Group will use part of the Facility proceeds to refinance some of its existing debts, with the remainder reserved as working capital for the Group’s business developments. This is very much in line with our prudent financial management to maintain substantial banking facilities on a standby basis in order to provide the Group with ample liquidity.

I am glad to share that the Group has been able to score the best credit ratings available to Hong Kong property companies. Standard & Poor’s grants the Group an A+ rating, whilst Moody’s awards us an A1 rating. Our dedication in developing quality and green properties, together with our premium and trustworthy brand and strong reputation, is well recognized among tenants, shoppers, home buyers as well as investment community, including renowned financial magazines such as Euromoney.

Amid macroeconomic headwinds and an uncertain external environment, our Group will stick to its prudent financial discipline and put strong emphasis on cash flow management, including the implementation of strict control on capital expenditure and the continuous launching of our residential projects for sale.
The Group’s Hong Kong rental portfolio has a gross floor area of over 30 million square feet, while our rental portfolio on the mainland, mainly located in first-tier cities, has been expanded to about 20 million square feet, providing us sizeable recurring income.  In Hong Kong, YOHO MIX, next to MTR Yuen Long Station, is scheduled to open in June this year, further enhancing YOHO Mall’s status as the largest shopping-and-entertainment hub in the northwest New Territories. On the mainland, the Group’s Nanjing IFC Mall, our luxury mall in Nanjing, had its soft opening early this year and has received an encouraging market response.  

Looking ahead, several key projects on the horizon include the High Speed Rail West Kowloon Terminus Development, for which we had just celebrated in March 2024 the topping out of an entire tower rented by UBS as the home of their new Asia Pacific headquarters. We shall name the office towers the International Gateway Centre (IGC).  This mega project and the Artist Square Towers in the West Kowloon Cultural District are now under development, together with the iconic ICC and our two luxury hotels, will form a truly unique commercial hub with a total of about 5.7 million square feet of premium grade-A office space. Leveraging its unrivalled competitive edge on location and green building standard, the cluster is well positioned to serve as a distinguished hub for commerce, culture, arts, retail, entertainment, and transportation in the Greater Bay Area and a place to live, work, play and learn. In Shanghai, construction work of the last phase of our International Trade Centre (ITC) is scheduled for completion in 2025. These new additions will further strengthen our recurring income base over the next two to three years.

For our financial year 2023/2024, our estimated net rental income from our investment projects would exceed HK$19.2bn.  Apart from growing a robust stream of recurring income derived from its sizeable property investment portfolio and non-property businesses, the Group will capitalize on its brand reputation for delivering high-quality properties to achieve fast asset turnovers for its property development business. The residential market in Hong Kong has revived after the full removal of cooling measures in late February 2024.  Our new launches, Cullinan Harbour in Kai Tak runway, YOHO Hub II in Yuen Long, as well as Dynasty Court in Mid-levels, have been well received by the market. Our Group will continue to launch new residential projects for sale when ready and put up for sale its unsold completed residential units and some of its non-core properties, ensuring a continuous cash inflow.

The Group remains confident in the long-term prospects of Hong Kong and its property market, and will continue to stick to prudent financial principles with a highly selective approach in land bank replenishment. With our prudent financial principles, time-tested business strategy and strong execution ability, I am fully confident that our Group will continue to prosper and stand at the forefront of the market. 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the management of:

• Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited
• Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited 
• Agricultural Bank of China Limited Hong Kong Branch 
• DBS Bank Ltd.
• The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited 
• Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Limited 
• Hang Seng Bank Limited
• China Construction Bank (Asia) Corporation Limited 
• China Minsheng Banking Corp., Ltd. Hong Kong Branch 
• CMB Wing Lung Bank Limited
• Nanyang Commercial Bank, Limited 
• Chiyu Banking Corporation Limited 
• The Korea Development Bank
• Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation 
• BNP PARIBAS
• Mizuho Bank, Ltd.
• Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited 
• United Overseas Bank Limited
• Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank Co., Ltd.
• Bank of Communications Co., Ltd Hong Kong Branch 
• Chong Hing Bank Limited
• Citigroup Global Markets Asia Limited 
• Crédit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank

All of them have made this fund raising exercise a great success.

Thank you!