Operator
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Far East Consortium International Limited's FY2026 annual results investor presentation.
Before we begin, let me introduce the management. They are Ms.
Winnie Chiu, Joint Managing Director and Executive Director; Ms. Wendy Chiu, Joint Managing Director and Executive Director; and Mr.
Boswell Cheung, Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary. Now may I invite Mr.
Cheung to start the presentation. Mr.
Cheung, please.
Boswell Cheung
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for coming.
This is the result briefing for the financial year ended 31st March, 2026. The result actually released and announced last night, and if you go for detail, of course you can go go on our website for the information, right?
Today, well, we can have a highlight, and actually we may share some business update and all that, right? Of course followed by a Q&A.
Thank you. The key theme of the financial year 2026, the adjusted revenue about $10 billion Hong Kong dollar, adjusted cash profits is around $109 million Hong Kong dollar.
Property development stand at 6.9 6.4 billion. In fact, that's include the our subsidiary property development project and also our JV as well.
The cumulative presale and unbooked contracted sales about $8.4 billion, out of which actually $1.1 billion has been contracted and and that expecting to be realized or booked within 3, 4 months. That means around, by now.
That will be actually a support another support for the financial year 2027. Recent development recent completion, Aspen, Victoria Riverside.
Aspen is actually in London, Canary Wharf. We have completed last year and is actually handed over by phases.
Victoria Riverside in Manchester consists of Tower A, B, and C. Tower B and C have been completed last September, yeah, and following by the Tower A, which we are we are expecting to to complete in in the coming couple of months.
That means in the first half of the financial year 2027. Pavilion Forest, just right next to, the Kai Tak, right?
It's a JV, 50-50, we own 50%. This is a relatively a bigger development, focus on a 100% focused on the residential apartments.
Queen's Wharf Tower 4, we actually completed this project last financial year, 2025, and when we come into 2026, we have the remaining units to be completed. In aggregate, it's talking about $4.5 billion.
For the inventory sales, which is talking about $1.8 billion in the last I mean in the financial year 2026, mainly from West Side Place and also the Mount Arcadia in Hong Kong. Upcoming, well, we've got 640 Bourke Street in Melbourne, located in the city center.
We launched the project last year and which is a very positive market response, we sold about up to now is about 40% plus already. Upcoming launch is a Sai Ying Pun, is actually a URA project, right?
We're expecting to launch within in the second half as well. Ho Chung in in in Sai Kung, in Sai Kung, Hong Kong, which is another JV project that we have, well, we are we are expecting to launch.
This project is consists of about 24 houses, right? Hotel, the revenue up about 50%, $2.4 billion is the revenue.
Gross profit margin improved, 47%. I think, in particular, the performance, which is a significant improved in Australia and in Hong Kong.
Recent openings, Dorsett Canary Wharf in London, and also we've got another small hotel, well, Dao by Dorsett North London, and also we've got another hotel, well, which is a HOP INN in Shanghai. They are all opened in the second half of last I mean in the financial year 2026.
Upcoming openings, we are scheduled, well, that is the first Dorsett in Perth, Dorsett Perth, which is we are expecting to open second half in the I think it's first Q of the 2027. Asset-light business model, well, for hotel, right?
We got another Dao Hotel opening in in Malaysia in May this year. Additional additional rooms, over 100 rooms in the Changi City in Singapore, which we have done it end of last year.
Car park, well, the revenue down a little bit, 6.6%, at $666 million Hong Kong dollar. I think most of the reason is that, well, as you remember, we have started dispose quite a lot of the non-core asset, including the car park asset as well.
England, I mean the UK, and also Victoria in Australia and all that, right? We have divest divest some assets and we are actually terminating some underperforming hotel I mean the the car park contract as well.
It's now it's actually transitional period, but in fact, it's improved the profit. Gaming, gaming is more under Palasino, right?
The the gaming revenue has actually increased by about 10% to $448 million, but for the Palasino revenue, which they have five hotel in in the in the in the portfolio, right? The revenue is about $600 million.
Also, well, the new launch in Cheb, well, this is just launched last year as well. It's still in the ramping-up period.
Next page, you can see, well, the continuation of some improvement, in particular on the debt level. I think this is our track record as well.
In the last 3 years, the total debt reduced about $8.8 billion Hong Kong dollar. The net I mean the adjusted net gearing ratio down to 63% as at end of March 2026 versus last year, actually improved about 4.5% I mean 4.5% point percentage point.
We also have demonstrated in the last I mean in the financial year 2026 that we have disposed quite a lot of the non-core asset as well, including the Hong Kong Hong Kong mortgage book, obviously this is our non-core asset, right? Also our another mortgage platform, which is the BC Invest.
We also cash out I mean the disposed the non-core asset in car park as well in Malaysia. Coming well, in the in the coming year 2027, we have actually expecting to complete, or actually some of them has been completed already, the hotel and hotel and town hall in Hornsey, London, North London, and also we got another office building in Central London as well, the location is perfect, right?
We sold out this non-core asset as well for almost £60 million sterling. And 50% of the Ritz-Carlton Perth for Australian dollar $100 million, and which this I mean this project has been completed in May as well.
49.9% Ritz-Carlton Melbourne, which is a connected-party transaction, for $58 million Aussie dollar, we are expecting to complete it in the first half, that means July, August, around, you know. Also, on the 31st of March, which is a big day as well, well, we have increased our DBC ownership from 25% to 50.
It's actually involved with an asset swap, right? Swap means giving out, taking back, right?
We we we obtaining the the additional 25% DBC, and also we have some other asset to be to be exchanged, for example, two hotels in the Gold Coast. Going through this process, sorry, going through this process, we have recognized a gain of about $726 million Hong Kong dollar.
That's reflected in the book, but this is the estimation. When we come when we come into the financial year 2027, we have to we have to reassess, the auditor, valuer, and us, right, will provide all the data and assess again.
That would be another final review. That will be reflecting in the balance sheet, thank you, and P&L as well.
On the next page, dispose year-end strategy disposal, right? Follow of what we have just discussed, the London office, hotel, which is talking about 68 rooms and and the and the town hall as well, Ritz-Carlton Perth, 50% stake, and also Ritz-Carlton Melbourne, 49.9% stake.
I think that's the high-level numbers in which you can see the London office and also the hotel town hall in in in Hornsey, the gain is about expect, well, this is also disclosed in our announcement as well, the the the gain is expected to be $270 million. Also the Perth, Ritz-Carlton, the gain is expected to be around $170 million Hong Kong dollar, and the gain from the Ritz-Carlton Melbourne is about $100 million Hong Kong dollar.
All together, expected amount of about $540 million. Hopefully, well, that will be expected to be all completed in the first half.
Sorry. Thank you.
Some highlight numbers of the financial year 2026 and '25, adjusted revenue over $10 billion, and versus last year drop about 6%. Adjusted gross profit margin before depreciation and impairment, the point is why we take away the depreciation, impairment and look looking at the profit margin is just like cash margin, right?
It's talking about 70 37%, which increased 5.2 percentage points. Net loss attributable to shareholder, $1.2 billion versus $1.2 billion last year, is around same, 5% drop.
Adjusted cash profit, $109 million versus last year $266 million. Financial cost, as we have just discussed, the debt level dropped, it helped to certain extent, right, the finance cost as well as well.
In fact, last year, I mean in the financial year 2025, the average interest rates for the group as a whole, right, the bank loan, 6.12%, and versus 4.87% in the financial year 2026. In in fact, it dropped a little bit.
Of course, this mainly because of the the HIBOR, the interest rate I mean the interest rate dropped in general. This is a little bit help as well.
On the other hand, of course, the debt level dropped, this is the the result finance of finance cost. Also, well, we have impairment loss on the property for sales is a is about $200 million, which is in relation to our project in Hong Kong.
The other impairment losses recognized by JV or associate company, this is honestly, well, this is also disclosed, right? This is partly because of the DBC, and also partly because of the property development in Hong Kong as well.
Like like this is discussed, the gain on the asset swap, well, $726 million Hong Kong dollar. Dividend not recommended for the for this financial year.
Profit margin, like I said, well, the overall gross profit margin increased to 37% from last year 31.8%. I think, well, partly improved by, yeah, enhanced by the property development because of we noted the higher profit margin in Australia and also in London as well.
Also, we have a strong improvement in the hotel operation, in particular in Hong Kong as well. That will be offsetting some of the profit margin drop, for example, the car park operation and the gaming, yeah, in the Palasino.
In Cheb. Next page, a lot of people, in particular banks, are interested in, right?
As you can see, well, the the total bank loans and notes dropped about $1.9 billion, and that's $23 billion as a whole as at end of March. The liquidity position, $3.6 billion, and net debts is talking about 1.
The $19.8 billion. In fact, well, if you look at the net gearing ratio, which is talking about 63%, dropped by 4.5 percentage point.
I think we don't have to talk about more in detail, because a lot of the, the these non-disposal asset sold, and, well, we've got accelerating accelerating some some of the property development, getting more cash flow back, settlement of the construction loan, and all that, right? This is the this is the position that we noted, and we are expecting to to reduce, obviously, because we still we still have some transaction coming up in the coming financial year as disclosed, and actually some of them we are actually on, well, in some discussion, right, with potential buyers.
Short-term debts analysis and liquidity management, I think that's this page is, again, well, is my favorite page to share with the banks. This is short-term loan, talking about $10 billion, is a is a few component, right?
Corporate hospitality and also car park loans, which is talking about the secured loan. If you have the hotel or the office building and what whatsoever, in fact, most of them are actually hotel.
We are, as a whole, I think our portfolio doesn't have a lot of commercial building, frankly speaking. That's, yeah, thanks for the company's direction, right, and the long-term strategy.
As at end of year as at end of March, $5.3 billion loan to be roll over or renew or refinanced within this coming year. In fact, we have been talking to some of the banks already, and we are confident that they are they they they can roll over, they can refinance.
Project development loans, which is in relation to the project, so long as you have presale, complete, and then, collection of the sales proceeds, the construction loan will be paid down automatically, in particular our portfolio in Australia, in Singapore, in in in Manchester, actually very good sales. We are focusing on the the market, they are they are in a in a in a in a in a good pace, right, in terms of the sales volume and and also the price, in particular in Australia.
When we have completed the project and exchange the legal title, get the get the sales proceeds, and then we will pay down the construction loan, it's quite honestly, it's quite automatic. This one very safe.
Corporate loan, well, this is focused on the unsecured loan. In fact, it dropped down a little bit from last year to this year end of March to $2.4 billion Hong Kong dollar.
This is the within a year. For the as a whole, right, for the whole I mean I mean including the unsecured bank loan more than a year, right?
It's talking about $3.2 billion versus the last year $4.5 billion, it dropped about $1.3 billion, which is also shown in the result as well, you can you can refer to, right? That's demonstrated that, well, we are in a good pace to reduce this unsecured loan.
We are we are quite confident. Loans with the partial repayment terms, I think this is the payment payment schedule, right?
You you you enter into a finance document with a repayment schedule quarterly, half a year, or, a bullet payment, and that's just the payment schedule. The last one is quite academic, repayable on the demand clause, which is talking about $700 million.
I think it's in relation to some old-fashioned bank loan document, honestly, right? Far, well, we don't have we haven't seen any single dollar because of this demand clause that, asking the company to to pay even $1, right.
Page 12, that's is the capital management initiative. I think we have touched on quite a bit already, and, well, in particular for some accelerating completion of the property brand projects in UK, in Hong Kong, in Pavilion Forest, Park Peninsula in Kai Tak.
Also we have, like I said, the Tower A, Victoria Riverside in Manchester, which is talking about £100 million pound. Like I said, well, the Tower B and C has been has been completed, the construction loan has been paid off already.
We're expecting this £100 million pound will be coming up into our pocket in the coming 2, 3 months, yeah, on schedule. Monetizing inventory, last year, financial year 2026, we have sold out we have recorded the $1.8 billion Hong Kong dollar, mainly from Hong Kong and London and Melbourne, right, Mount Arcadia, Aspen, and Consort Place in Canary Wharf, and also West Side Place in in Melbourne.
Also, well, as at end of March this year this year, the presale and also contracted sales was talking about $8.4 billion, of which $1.1 billion has been contracted sales, right? That will be reflecting in our in our book of financial year 2027.
Divesting non-core asset, I think we continue. The the London office, the hotel, Ritz-Carlton Perth and Melbourne, actually we we discussed already.
Hotel portfolio, well, Kai Tak, Dorsett Kai Tak, as you can see, we have opened almost 2 years, yeah, end of end of September 2 years ago, right? Picking a lot, very good performance.
In particular, we have enjoyed the traffic of the Kai Tak Sports Stadium as well. New hotel, well, the Canary Wharf, the HOP INN opened already.
Honestly, they are still in ramp-up period, of course, right, but it's it's a good it's on a good pace. Reduction in the capex requirement, in particular for hotel portfolio, it dropped about we're expecting to drop 43% to $173 million Hong Kong dollar.
That, in fact, helping the the the cash flow, the the cash resources as well. On page 13, you you can see this is the the fund or the liquidity available for the group to to use.
The liquidity existing liquidity including the undrawn facility is talking about $5.3 billion, and $1.1 billion is the capex, and also we have the $8.4 billion the presales and unbooked contracted sales as well. That would definitely helping our future cash flow requirement.
The coming section is talking about the property development, can I may I pass to Wendy?
Wendy Chiu
Thank you, Boswell. Good morning, everyone.
Thank you for being here today. I'm Wendy Chiu, the Joint MD of FEC.
Now I will take you through our property development and project updates. Looking back at the last financial year, while we continue to navigate a volatile macroeconomic environment, we have demonstrated our resilience and strengths to excel and further improve our positions.
Against this backdrop, we focused on our strategic initiatives to accelerate project completion and actively pursue inventory sales. All these have allowed us to optimize cash flows and strengthen our overall financial position.
As of result in FY2026, our adjusted revenue from property development is $6.4 billion. In fact, our profit margin actually grew from 26% to 31.1%.
Additionally to build on what Boswell pointed out earlier on our balance sheet strength, I want to provide some additional context on our successful improving of our gearing ratio. If you remember 3 years ago, 2023, our total debt was $32.3 billion, our gearing ratio went up to 73.8%.
Over the past 3 years, we have successfully brought it down to $23.5 billion, which is gearing ratio of 63%. Thus, we have successfully paid down $8.8 billion on the banking facilities.
If we actually further, from the 63%, if we counted the disposal of our two Ritz-Carlton hotels, our gearing ratio will in fact further come down to 5.8% to 57.2%, which underscores our ongoing commitment to deleveraging and optimizing our capital structure. Now just to slowly talk about let let's talk about the overall market, because we're quite a global kind of property developer.
In Hong Kong, I think most of you are aware Hong Kong's improved with consecutive months gain price index, strong price rebound, and the residential rental index have been performing very well and increased by 4.1% since 2025. Monthly deals went from ranging 5,000 to 7,300 per per month within this 2 years, and the new launch captured around 35%, which is majority of the sales in Hong Kong.
We will later all also will talk about Pavilion Forest, Park Peninsula, which we have extensively increased pricing due to this. In terms of UK, not sure if any I'm sure you guys are aware as well that the Prime Minister have recently announced his resignation.
The UK market is still quite uncertain. On a positive note, in fact, Andy Burnham just went to our site in Manchester yesterday just to show his support on, our track record and what we have done for the recent years.
We're very happy about that and very excited about it. In terms of the UK markets, like what I said, it's still quite weak and fragmented, very price sensitive.
That's why, we we believe that Manchester will go very well, because we see a lot of people migrating into Manchester. Recent search on residential sales looks a bit better in the recent months.
The rental market, however, still stays very strong. The rental average actually increases 4%.
In my view, with the shortage of supply and the increase of rental income, we are very hopeful of the growth in UK. In terms of Australia, it has been outperforming in our whole portfolio.
Brisbane has always been a very strong market, we will continue to tap on that market. Brisbane has increased 17.6% annually for for the residential price per square feet.
Going back to our projects, our newly completed projects contributed about $4.5 billion to this revenue. Namely, just now Boswell talked about Tower B and C in Manchester, Aspen, Pavilion Forest, and Queen's Wharf, Brisbane.
Our access existing inventory, we still continue to monetize this. West Side Place and Mount Arcadia have contributed $1.8 billion.
Our sales momentum is picking up over the past 12 years. Our presales as of March 31st is $8.4 billion.
Looking ahead, we maintain a substantial development pipeline of around $58.8 billion to support our long-term visibility and growth. For Manchester projects, Victoria Riverside is one of our key revenue contributors.
Our total GDV for this project is $1 billion. We have sold $940 million, remaining only $100 million left.
At the moment, we've recognized $852 million. We've completed and handover July 2025.
It comprises of three towers and 600 units, 38 townhouses. Tower B, like what Boswell mentioned, is fully settled, next, Tower A is fully cash, free from debts.
It consists of 275 residentials. The whole total total GDV is $1 billion, 98% sold, and only $20 million of inventory remaining.
Ex- expected to complete this quarter, in fact, we are going to send out letters within a month. For London Aspen, Aspen, Consort Place is a mixed-use development, consists of over 500 apartments and a Dorsett Hotel Canary Wharf, which just opened.
The total GDV is $4.4 billion, we've sold $2.6 billion, the remaining is $1.8 billion. Now, I mean with the like what I mentioned, with the shortage of housing supply, the construction have been slowing down because of the percentage of affordable, and the strong yield in rental, we would be starting our new marketing schemes.
Also we see that there are a lot of companies that are actually staying, in fact, coming into Canary Wharf. We are expected the sales would be continue to to accelerate.
Pavilion Forest, Park Peninsula, it's it's a project in Kai Tak that it's a joint venture with New World. We have right now well, we previously had 1,300 apartments at a GDV of around $10.4 billion.
We have sold $6.9 billion, and we have remaining around $3.5 billion inventories. In fact, this project, we've started selling, I'm sure everyone remember, it was selling at $16,000 per square feet.
We have now pushed up to at least $22,000 per square feet. We've seen average around 23, $24,000 at the moment.
Last month, we've recorded a record high of over $29,000 per square feet. All our remaining apartments are actually the sea view and on the top floor.
We will be closely monitoring the market. The market's been doing very well, we we will be looking into probably increasing the pricing as we go, which we have recently done for the past half a year.
The Queen's Wharf Residences, this is in Brisbane. Tower 4 has been a success.
It's a, 100 100% GDV is $3.1 billion, with total we've sold $3.1 billion. Our previously completed and handover in March 2025, our recognized attributable revenue this year is $475 million, because it's 50% joint venture.
We have one apartment left, actually. Tower 5 Tower 5, previously we've mentioned, we have relaunched previously and have increased 12.5%.
We have around 60% customers have stayed with us. Furthermore, we've further increased our price to 15% with a price increment since we launched.
Right now it's I'm very happy to say that with 97% units sold. Because of this, we've also added three more levels in planning and added, apartments to push our GDV level previously from 4.9 to $5.9 billion.
This reinforces our profit margin and our position in in Brisbane and Australia. Given our confidence in Brisbane market, we expect Tower 6 to be also maintaining very good sales.
We at the beginning were looking at, together with Tower 6, a GDV of $9 billion, but we are now looking at pushing it to around $11 billion Hong Kong dollars. Tower 5 and 6 are expected to be completed in FY2029.
This is a project in Malaysia. It is Dorsett Place Waterfront Subang.
We have a total GDV of $2 billion. We've sold $948 million, with around $1 billion remaining, we will continue to to recognize the revenue in the coming coming year.
West Side Place, Melbourne, this has been a big win for us. We have over 3,000 units, close to 3,000 units, excuse me.
The total GDV is $10 billion, we've sold $10.3 billion, only nine units remaining. If if you remember 2 years ago, we have over 1,000 units left, and over this 2 years, the sales team have done an remarkable job.
Of course, I still believe our clubhouse is definitely the best in Australia at the moment. Our rental yield is around 5 to 6%, hence it really helped and boost the sales of West Side Place.
We now only have $39 million of inventory remaining, which we expect it to clear out within this 2 months. In terms of Mount Arcadia, a project in Hong Kong, we have a GDV of $1.7 billion, we've sold $1.3 billion, our remaining is roughly $500 million.
It's completed earlier, and we've recognized around roughly $200 million this year. It is situated in Tai Po with 62 apartments and four houses.
We are planning to launch our four houses in the near term as well. We have our recent launch in Melbourne, 640 Bourke Street.
This is a 68-level ultra-luxury apartments in Australia, Melbourne. Actually, it's quite very close to our Ritz-Carlton Melbourne as well.
We have put in the highest actually the highest price in Melbourne per by project. We are asking for roughly around $9,000 Hong Kong dollar per square feet.
Up to today, we are looking at a GDV of $4.1 billion, with presold $1.5 billion. We have around 629 units, and we've presold already 328 units.
We'll be looking at slowly launching more as the construction go further just so that we can enhance our revenue recognition and increase the price as we go along. The development is expected to be completed in FY29.
Just a note, forgot to tell you, for Melbourne and Brisbane, Tower 5, 6, and also this Bourke Street, this will be a FEC Construction. At the moment, we are forecasting, in fact, FEC Construction to in fact have a $3.3 billion revenue as well in this few years.
For our upcoming launch, looking at the market in Hong Kong right now, it's it's fairly hot. We'll be launching two key projects.
One is in Ho Chung, Hong Kong Oh, sorry, okay, one is in Sai Ying Pun, which is a project with URA. We will be looking into launching this pretty soon, construction has already started.
Of course, the our Ho Chung project in Sai Kung, which is a joint venture project, and we own around 33% stake. This will be a 26 high-end houses with approximately GDV of around $500 million.
Moving to Shanghai, we just recently launched our 1,700 units right opposite the Shanghai University. Just our first phase, the total approximately total 573,000 lettable area.
Our next phase is coming up soon, and in fact it has started construction, that will increase further 2,700 units into this project and would be expected to complete in financial year 2029. Overall, we remain cautiously optimistic that our strategic focus will continue to support sustainable growth and stability for FEC in the years ahead.
With approximately $58.8 billion in our development pipeline, and by driving early completion, we aim to contribute meaningful to re- to reduce our debts. Thank you very much for your time and attention.
We appreciate your continued support and look forward to sharing our progress with you in the near future. Now, I like to hand over to Winnie for hotel operation.
Winnie Chiu
Thank you. Thanks, Boswell.
Thanks, Wendy. Good morning, everyone.
Thank you for joining us. Let me just report on our financials in our hotel division.
This year this financial season, yeah, all our ratios are up. The whole to- like the total division revenue from hotel is 2.38B, 14.6% up compared to last year.
In terms of our GOP, in fact, it's recorded quite a quite a good growth of 26.6% to $734 million. In in fact, all I think all the occupancy I mean to get the growth, both occupancy, average room rate, and RevPAR all had a a good growth.
If we talk about kind of different regions, Hong Kong Hong Kong has been doing quite well, quite well, really picking up the points. Malaysia is almost is kind of flat.
Also I think China, sorry, can you hold on? Sorry, can you guys hear me?
Yeah. I think So, in China, again, I think with a kind of a year-on-year -7.7 points change is already considered, not not bad at all compared to your peers.
Singapore's good growth. In fact, UK is the only region whereby, our growth has kind of slowed down and actually dropped, reason being that we have opened two hotels in the in this financial year, namely Canary Wharf as well as Hornsey.
Of course, it does take a little bit of time to ramp up, yeah. The oc- So again, in terms of occupancy rate, the Dorsett Group has 73.4% with an average room rate of 870, bringing our room revenue to 2.2B.
Combining with Palasino, with the 163 in the revenue, that brings up to 2.38B. Now, I just want to update all of you on our new openings in this in this financial year.
We have actually launched HOP INN. HOP INN is kind of our our more youth youth youth hostel kind like a youth hostel hotel project, aiming for stu- I think range the year, I think that around 20 you do get the students up to 40 Anyone below 40, let's let's say that.
We've been actually getting, quite a big traction on there. I think mainly because this hotel is right opposite Shanghai University, which has about 60,000 students.
In terms of the offering with this brand, what's the difference is, of course, there's 24 hours bar, 24 hours library, and quite a lot of e-gamings. Because you also need those ergonomically friendly chair for people to actually play this video this games for for a long time.
It's been very, well-received. Now, Canary Wharf, Dorsett Canary Wharf opened in September 2025.
Wendy has also mentioned that the Canary Wharf find find Well, actually, all of you are financiers here, you also note that Canary Wharf has really been picking up. Please visit us when you go to London next.
We do have a very good celebrity chef, Wang Bao. He is actually our chef stationed in Canary Wharf.
Since his arrival, actually, we have quite a lot of guests from Hong Kong really going to to try his food. You can see that from the picture, it's really very good.
Now, Dorsett North London, this is a yeah, this is a management contract because we have sold the property, this is a 68 serviced apartment in Hornsey. This area, it's you can actually get some corporate business from Alexandra Palace, because that's also quite a fame like a popular concert and exhibition place.
We have also opened Again, this is a management contract. We have also opened Dao by Dorsett Puteri Cove in May 2026.
I think this will be actually financial year 2027, but I just want to, update. I actually just came back from Singapore yesterday to look at this is, again, another management contract.
We are the only operator of Nanyang Technological University, NTU, we actually remodeled some of their student campus to make it like a student hotel facility, mostly for the EMBA students. We will be opening in August 2026.
In terms of pipeline, we have Dorsett Perth coming very soon in financial year 2027. We have Dorsett Brisbane in Australia coming very soon as well, as well as Dorsett Fiji.
Now, I want to, bring our investors to to back to this page in our value enhancement project. I think if you have fought like a lot of you have followed us for a very long time, around 3 years ago, I already started talking about kind of student accommodation.
In fact, we also started bringing Because of the interest rate, we started, looking at how do we keep on growing, but then still but then actually use less of the company resources. I we started this OPM, other people's money, journey, and it's been doing quite well.
In fact In fact, our investors are tremendously happy. If you look at 2 years ago, we bought the Dorsett Changi City.
We bought this, we are minority shareholder, and we bought this together with Angela Gordon as well as a few family offices. What and the upgrade has already been completed, we actually added 100 rooms to this asset, bringing it in terms of value doubled in a in, Hello?
2 years, two 2. something years, yeah.
We don't enjoy the full upside, but we do enjoy the fees, we do take fee on project management as well as if they do exit, I've negotiated for a carry. I I think, this will be carry on the business model that we will be, going forward.
A lot of investors also asked me just now, am I looking at Hong Kong? Sure, why not, if the if the value is good, but for sure, we'll be looking for partners together to do that.
Now, we're also going to increase number of rooms in Dao by Dorsett in Dao by Dorsett AMTD. About I think around, yeah, Yeah, again, 3 years ago, since we rebranded, it used to be an Oakwood, and this used to be the old DBS Building.
Since we took the management af- after Oakwood, that same year, we actually improved the GOP by 80%. Again, not because we're smarter or anything, because we really believe and focus in revenue management, and using the hotel revenue management in a serviced apartment, so that really is the key differentiator of ourselves and others.
If you So again, because of the strong growth and all that, we will be adding number of rooms to this property, and also the we're not major shareholder for this for this building. Yep, in terms I'll just end it end with our pipeline.
At the moment, we are in terms of our room count, we are 9,803 today. March 31st, 2026, and by March 31st, 2027, we are 10,791 rooms.
Thank you so much.
Boswell Cheung
Followed this section is talking about the car park as well. FEC own car park about 90%, right?
This is one of our important subsidiary in the recurring business stream. Revenue last year in the financial year 2026, $666 million, down 6%.
We have discussed very earlier that's some of the asset's been sold out and we are actually during the transition period to downsize some underperforming contracts. In fact, this the the bottom line of this car park has actually improved.
We also noted, well, in the last year, in particular, the land tax affecting our profit margin as well. On the other hand, we also followed the the corporate strategy to dispose some of the car park assets in Malaysia, for example, in the year of financial year of 2026.
Previously, we have sold out some big car park, in the Boundary Farm in Manchester, some car parks in Victoria State in Australia, we actually, well, continue this disposal of the non-core asset or some mature asset, I would say, well, for car park. Also that's exist- well, existingly, we we are managing our own car park and also the third-party management car park about over 100,000 car park bays.
Followed by this car park, well, on the next page, you will see the gaming operation. The gaming operation, well, well, firstly, well, it it refers to the Palasino, right?
Palasino, well, consists of four casino asset and also five hotel assets. The revenue is talking about $611 million, but for the gaming revenue is talking about $448 million, increase about 10%.
Gross profit margin, 40%, very stable business, this is why we like it. Also like, well, end of last year, we have another new Palasino I mean new casino assets to launch, and that's is the Palasino performance.
For the DBC, may I pass to Wendy to talk to talk about this?
Wendy Chiu
Thank you, Boswell. For Brisbane DBC, I see a lot of banks here, just want to say thank you for your support.
We have just finished the transaction as of March 31st. As a chairperson of Destination Brisbane, this is a $3 billion project and is a very important cash cow in the future for FEC.
This year focus mainly really to drive the efficient deal structure, as many of you will know. We have acquired a large stake in an opportunity through a very minimal cash deployment from The Star Brisbane, right?
We bought over the 50% of Star Brisbane and along with some asset swap. We have also asset swap some of the minority stake we have in Gold Coast, mainly 33% of the two hotel towers.
As of today right now, our joint venture partner and FEC owns 50-50% of this whole precinct, which we have record a $726 million gain. Going forward, I'll be more focused on the operation.
First thing we did, which is very important, is to change the management agreement. The management fee went from $5 million per month now to $1.5 million per month, which helps our financial significantly.
The other thing that we have done is to have a leaner workforce, right? Previously, we had a couple of thousand workforce, now we're down to around 1,700.
The performance in the gaming casino is really more on driving people into our precinct. I'm very happy to tell everyone that we have reached nearly 10 million visitation per year as of today, and we are now focusing on how we generate more revenue from the foot traffic.
We started with negative performance cash flow, and happy to tell everyone that as of last month, we have recorded a record month EBITDA of $15.6 million Australian dollar. We will see further enhancement as we increase more entertainment throughout the whole precinct.
I think we've mentioned previously, DFS have let us down a bit, have left our whole precinct, but what we are actually focusing now on when we look back is really on entertainment, because we do drive foot traffic around mostly, even more, after dinner time, right? We do, instead of the retail spaces being retail luxury brands, which probably closes between the 8:00 p.m.
until in the morning the next day, we kind of want to activate the whole precinct, make it more exciting, more F&B, more entertainment. That's what we will be focusing on.
We have also looked back on the layouts and plans that we have after speaking to a lot of different operators, all the really good ones. We always talk about how many hotel rooms we have.
At the moment, we have 350 hotel rooms in our Star Brisbane. We have added a few hundred more, and then in our Rosewood and Dorsett adding around 600 to 700 rooms, making this precinct around over 1,000 rooms, which we think will greatly benefit us.
The other thing that we have done is we are actually looking into increasing our premium gaming customers, which we have recently just opened our Chairman's high-roller gaming floor as well. It has been a huge success and will continue to drive more businesses into our gaming and entertainment sector.
We are very much looking forward to the Brisbane Olympics coming up. I'll pass back to Boswell on the prospect.
Boswell Cheung
Thank you, Wendy. Let's talk about the prospect, yeah.
On page 40, almost 50 50 pages. On page 48, I think we continue to have our prudent financial strategy and management.
Gearing ratio, net leverage are expected to be further improved. As we have discussed previously today, we are actually accelerating some sales, property development, continue to dispose the non-core asset, and at the right time, we are trying to unlock even further our hotel revaluation surplus.
For the visibility of the cash flow from both property development and also the recurring business, right? Property development, we have $58 million $58 billion pipeline and $8.4 billion in the presales and also the contracted sales, of which, like I said, well, 1.1 has been locked up already end of March.
Of course, well, this still continue to sell, for example, the Victoria Riverside, Tower A, we just mentioned as well, expecting to complete it in the coming 2, 3 months, in the first half. Hotel, well, obviously continue to grow, in particular we have another 2, 3 hotels, for example, the Dorsett Kai Tak as well, and RevPAR in Hong Kong in particular continue to grow.
On top of which, we've got four hotels coming up, in particular the Dorsett Perth will be opening almost in a year, right? Car park, continue to phase out the underperforming contracts, and we are towards to the asset-light business model and reducing the leverage as well.
Gaming, well, restructuring of the Queen's Wharf development projects continue to drive the operational improvement. Of course, we have one of our gaming arms, which is the separate listed company, Palasino, right?
There will be another newly opened casino coming up into the revenue and cash flow as well. Thank you so much.
That's the end of the presentation.
Wendy Chiu
Thank you, Mr. Cheung.
We will begin our Q&A section, and if you like to ask a question, please raise your hand, and we will pass the microphone to you. Before asking your question, kindly introduce yourself and the company you represent.
For online investors, you are welcome to submit your questions through the Q&A box, and we will read them out one by one. Oh,
Boswell Cheung
I got one, well, one questions from the online as well. Actually, this one question is quite representative, coming from quite a few similar questions.
We didn't declare or recommend the dividend, right? We didn't pay the perpetual bond coupon as well.
What's the plan? Can I answer it or...
Wendy Chiu
Please. Please,
Boswell Cheung
I mean. Actually from the online.
I think this is our strategy or this is our direction as well, mentioned in the annual report, result, or even our chairman in the interview. We have to focus our bank loan.
That is our first priority. I think most of the banks we have dealing with last year, 2 years ago, for the refinancing of the property-backed loan or unsecured, we are open to discuss, and well, share our forecast, business update, and all that, right?
I would say all of the banks are actually have confidence on our cash flow, on our strategy, in particular, when we gone through the COVID, diversification is so important, and also we enjoy the new property cycle as well as the hotel performance cycle as well, right? Demonstrated that we are actually in a good shape, in particular today, well, we are actually in the 63% gearing ratio net, and we are expecting to come down further in the coming years.
Yes, this is demonstrated that we focus on the bank loan first. For the perpetual bond coupon, and you have to consider this is the equity in nature, right?
We really want to dealing with the bank loan to maintain a good relationship with our bankers, right? A lot of banks in Hong Kong, overseas, Singapore, Australia, they're our good friends, well, but on the...
Bangkok as well.
Wendy Chiu
Bangkok as well.
Boswell Cheung
For the coupon payment, right? I think we will consider when we coming into a moment that we dealing with our gearing further down, more comfortable with the bank loan situation.
In fact, we are managing quite well, to be frank, right? I think that's the answer,
Wendy Chiu
yeah. I think riding on our chairman's also thinking behind, previously he has mentioned that, obviously 73 was way too high.
We want to go down to 50s level. Obviously we're reaching 50s level, I think he now wants to go down to under 50.
Of course, given this 2 years, we have seen tremendous support from the banks. I think for sure, first thing, we will be looking at really lowering down our gearing ratio first.
On that note, I just want to remind everyone, we are not just a Hong Kong property developer, we're quite global. In terms of Hong Kong, land bank is always more expensive, whereas in Australia and UK, Manchester, the land pricing is much lower, the construction cost is much higher.
Hence, the gearing ratio will always be a bit higher than Hong Kong because we don't have that per-square-feet kind of land price in Hong Kong. Having said that, we'll still be looking at lowering the gearing ratio first.
Thank you. Any question from the floor, please?
Or maybe online?
Chris Ko
Hi, Chris Ko, Pecunia Capital. Just a clarification on the Queen's Wharf, was the 15.6 overall or attributable?
Can you talk about the profile of $500 million Australian in capex over the next 3 years?
Wendy Chiu
Yeah. Sorry, just to be clear, the 15.6 million is not attributable, it's a joint venture, right?
We're looking at, of course, going higher because as we're going on to a higher peak season of casino gaming, we're hopefully seeing a growth on that. In terms of the $500 million growth, we are phasing it out into I think we will start the Rosewood and Dorsett first, and we are in talks with a lot of potential joint venture partners to further come in, their different brands and also different owners that wants to come in.
At the moment, it would definitely still be Rosewood and Dorsett, since it's our joint venture partners brand.
Operator
Thank you, Wendy. Any question from online?
Boswell Cheung
Yeah. Question, "Can you share your refinancing plans for the short-term debts as mentioned on page 11?"
We talked about that just now, but we can talk about more detail, right? For the corporate hospitality, meaning hotel, right?
Hotel asset and also car park loans, $5.3 billion. All of the loan are actually asset-backed.
In particular this year, end of March end of March, quite a lot of hotels in Hong Kong to be refinanced. This 5.3 actually, most of them are actually from Hong Kong as well.
Obviously, the occupancy in the last year in Hong Kong and the RevPAR in Hong Kong obviously improved, and we are expecting to continue the growth, or maybe Wendy can talk about this later on, but...
Winnie Chiu
Anyway,
Boswell Cheung
because
Winnie Chiu
these are all asset-backed secured loan, all the refinancing are under discussion,
Boswell Cheung
and
Winnie Chiu
I'm not very worried about this.
Boswell Cheung
Yeah.
Winnie Chiu
Yeah.
Boswell Cheung
Also the project development loans, like I said, this is the project-related. Honestly, our market is quite on the mass market.
Although we have some houses, luxury market, but honestly most of them actually mass market. All the off the market are quite well, doing very well, in particular Australia, right, and and Manchester as well.
Once we have completed our project, get the sales proceeds, pay down the construction loan, and that's is the construction loan which we talk about. Worry about this.
Corporate loans, this is unsecured, like I said, well, we we improved a lot, in particular not only within a year, as a whole, right? We improved about $1.3 billion.
For the current liability, well, within a year looks like similar, but in fact, we have paid down a bit as well already. Most of the bank we have been talking with them, and we are we are we are figuring out the repayment schedule and we trying to fit our cash flow, you know.
We also understand from the banks that, well, sometimes, you guys may have more knowledge than me, sometimes the the bank referred to me that, well, they have restriction on the CRE and all that, right? They need really need someone to help, you know.
In particular, we are not focused on the commercial building, it's relatively better than the peer group, honestly, right? This is also, on the other hand, we also want to focus on the like I said, the the chairman also endorse us to focus on the bank loan, in particular unsecured loan, this is why we are, trying to reduce this, and working very well with all the banks, I would say, you know.
Repayment schedule, the demand clauses are just, academic and the payment schedule. This is, I think, hopefully, this is answering the question online, right?
Operator
Thank you. Any question from the floor, please?
Winnie Chiu
Thank you so much for joining us. I also like to take this opportunity to really thank our long-term shareholders, stakeholders.
I think in every one of our role, stakeholder management is what we do every day. Really from the management, we truly appreciate the long-term strategy and a long-term view you take on Far East Consortium.
We are now what? 53-year-old?
53-year-old, yeah, company. Of course, we have seen cycles, and it's really during more tough times, you can actually see in terms of the quality that the decisions the management makes.
I hope that I would really value a two-way dialogue. Please speak to us more often, reach out.
Yep, hopefully, we can be back in our dividend payment mode. Thank you.
Wendy Chiu
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our investor presentation.
Thank you for joining us today. Thank you.
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