Hongkong Retail Bottom? Profit Growth Of Kowloon Warehouse

Retail sales in Hongkong seem to be showing signs of improvement. The news of 00004.HK's separate listing of its investment properties in Harbour City, a high-end shopping mall, is raging again.

Limited company (HKSE:0004) was founded in 1886. The Kowloon warehouse was originally the name of the largest cargo port in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hongkong.

In 1980, sir Bao Yugang gained control of the company through the increase of shares. The Kowloon warehouse became a Chinese enterprise from the old British bank and laid the foundation for its rapid development in China and Hong Kong.

In 1986, Wu Guangzheng became the chairman of the Kowloon warehouse and left office in 2015.

The current chairman is Wu Tianhai.

With the strength of the Kowloon warehouse group, by the end of 2014, the total assets amounted to HK $445 billion, focusing on the development of real estate and infrastructure business in both China and Hong Kong. The company's business includes real estate, shopping centres, communications, media, hotels and ports.

The group is Affiliated Companies of HKSE:0020.

It is reported that the investment property held by Kowloon warehouse does not include hotel business. It only includes investment properties such as Harbour City, Times Square, Hollywood square, Club de Fung tower and Carver tower, and China Chengdu international financial center.

Harbour City, located in Tsim Sha Tsui, and the high-end shopping malls in these two prime locations in Times Square, Tongluowan, have been a large number of mainland tourists patronizing, and also the cash cows of the listed group.

According to the annual performance of Kowloon warehouse, the core profit of the group rose by 25% to 13 billion 754 million yuan, of which 64% came from investment property and 28% from development property.

The core earnings of investment properties increased by 6% to 8 billion 800 million yuan. The group's rise was due to the high rental rate and the ideal growth of rentals.

Last year, the total investment revenue of Hongkong's investment property reached 12 billion 939 million yuan, up 6% from the same period last year, and its operating profit rose 7% to 11 billion 288 million yuan.

According to the project, Harbour City's retail sales fell by about 10% last year, but the total revenue increased by 5% to 8 billion 960 million yuan.

From 5% to 7 billion 847 million yuan, the revenue of shopping malls increased by 4% to 6 billion 207 million yuan. However, due to the withdrawal of Ye Yi Tang due to the adjustment strategy, the rental rate dropped to 96%; the income of Tongluowan Times Square increased 6% to 2 billion 838 million yuan, operating profit increased 8% to 2 billion 533 million yuan, the income of the shopping malls increased 6% to 2 billion 137 million yuan, and the rental rate remained at an average level, and the sales of tenants dropped to $4%.

At the beginning of March this year, at the beginning of March this year, the Kowloon warehouse announced the launch of a new strategy assessment. The study was to distribute some of the investment properties in the form of physical distribution to shareholders, and to introduce the form of spin off, so that nine stockholders had the opportunity to hold two listed companies simultaneously. However, Wu Tianhai, chairman of the group, pointed out that at present, which investment properties were not allocated to the new listed companies, but this also meant that the Tsim Sha Tsui Harbour City and Tongluowan Times Square valued at up to $219 billion could become an independent listed company.

At present, the latest valuation of Chinese and Hong Kong investment properties in Kowloon warehouse is up to 319 billion 300 million yuan, which accounts for about 71.94% of the total assets of the group.

The valuation of shopping malls and office buildings in Tsim Sha Tsui in Harbour City amounted to 164 billion 500 million yuan, equivalent to 37.06% of total assets, together with Times Square, which accounted for 68.6% of the estimated value of investment property.

Wu Tianhai, the nine storehouse chairman, said today after the company's annual general meeting that the group had completed the technical feasibility study, but commercial feasibility study is still in progress, so it has not been finalized.

Earlier, Wu Tianhai said that the investment property of Kowloon warehouse was hard to find. The main purpose of the study was to divide the company into two companies, A and B, which were allocated to investors, allowing investors to choose their own goods or sell them. They also stressed that the plan was insider information and did not want to cause any leakage of information, so they took the initiative to issue a notice.

It is noteworthy that in the first quarter of this year, the retail sales of group Harbour City and times square were recorded at a slightly younger growth rate than that of the big market. According to the early information provided by the merchants, the performance in April was good. However, Wu Tianhai admitted that he could not immediately assert that the retail sales in Hong Kong had bottomed up. It would take months to see whether the darkest days had passed. The group's overall passenger flow has increased.

According to market analysis, the performance of non luxury goods is better than that of luxury goods. Wu Tianhai pointed out that according to the data of the two major shopping malls, luxury goods merchants performed better, while non luxury merchants showed a drag on overall growth, but he stressed that they could not reflect the situation in Hong Kong.

According to the latest data released by the Hongkong government, sales of Hongkong's retail industry for the first time in March recorded an increase of 3.1% to HK $35 billion 700 million for the first time in 24 months, with the largest increase in jewelry and watch industry, an increase of 8.4% compared with the same period last year; sales of cosmetics increased by 3.5%; sales of clothing categories increased by 2.5%; the department store industry was basically unchanged from last year, with an increase of 0.1%, with analysts indicating that the data further prove that the Hongkong luxury market is gradually recovering.

In addition, Liu Luanhong, President of SOGO department's parent company, 01212.HK, said that the overall sales volume of its SOGO department's first quarter was the same as that of last year. The flow of people in Tongluowan SOGO department also began to pick up. As for Tsim Sha Tsui store, the first quarter turnover maintained double-digit growth.

He believes that retail sales in Hongkong have bottomed out, but due to the lack of a larger driving force, it is at a parallel stage.

By the end of the press release, the shares of the company had edged down 0.30% to HK $66.80 per share, and its stock price has risen 15% in the past three months, with a market value of HK $201 billion 600 million.

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