City Developments Stock

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, friends from the media, analysts, bankers, investors and fellow CDL colleagues.

My name is Belinda, and I'm the Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at CDL. On behalf of the CDL management, welcome to CDL's briefing on its unaudited financial results for half year ended 30 June, 2026.

Now, this is a hybrid briefing format, with both in-person here at the M Hotel Singapore and those joining us virtually on the live webcast. Thank you for being here. I know it's a very busy financial reporting season and to see so many in this room brings us much joy. So, thank you all for being here.

So for today's briefing, in line with CDL's commitment to environmental sustainability, we will not be providing printed materials. Instead, please scan the QR code on the screen to download several documents that were uploaded on SGXNet this morning. They include a copy of the detailed financial results statement, a press release summarizing some of the key highlights of our performance, a presentation deck that the management will be using in a very short while. Now, for our guests that are joining us virtually, you would similarly be able to download these documents, which are available on the CDL website.

I would like to introduce you to the CDL management panel. In the center, we have Mr. Kwek Leng Beng, our Executive Chairman; and followed by our Exco Members. On his right, Mr. Sherman Kwek, Group CEO; on his left, Mr. Kwek Eik Sheng, Group Chief Operating Officer; then followed by Mr. Chia Ngiang Hong, Group General Manager; and nearest to me, Ms. Yiong Yim Ming, Group Chief Financial Officer.

Now the format today, briefing is in 2 parts. We will kick off with a presentation of some of the key highlights of our performance, followed later by a Q&A session.

So without further ado, I would like to invite Mr. Sherman Kwek, CDL Group CEO, to kick start the presentation. Mr. Kwek, please?

Hi. Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Belinda, for the introduction, and thank you for making time to come over.

As Belinda has mentioned, I know it's a busy day for all of you with several earnings announcements coming out today as well. Happy to take you through our performance highlights for the first half. Yim Ming will then take you through financial highlights, the ops review for your perusal. And if you have any questions, let us know.

Performance highlights, really happy to be here to share some strong results for our first half. You will see that our revenue is up over -- slightly over 60%, and our PATMI is up more than 3x or 230%. Primarily, this has been driven by our strong Singapore Property Development segment. So, we have several projects that really did well for us and we recognized revenue on -- and they were built at a faster pace. So, revenue and profit recognition came in faster as well.

Obviously, one is Lumina Grand, as we've mentioned up there, that's an EC in Bukit Batok West Avenue 5. So, that has been completed. And therefore, under the prevailing rules, we recognize full revenue and profit. Other contributors that were strong were Newport. Newport Residences was launched at the beginning of this year and is now over 80% sold. And because of that project, as you know, we delayed the launch because we were going to launch right as we're going to launch the 60% ABSD on foreigners was announced, right? So, we held back on that. And as a result, the launch is delayed by quite a while. So because of that, the building completion has gone on much faster. Therefore, we are also recognizing good revenue from there.

And lastly, many of our other Singapore projects continue to have steady sales. Norwood Grand, we had a bit of a slow start with Union Square Residences, which is quite a pity because it's in such a beautiful mixed-use development and in a really great fringe CBD location, but glad to see that sales have really started to pick up as well over the last couple of months. And you'll see that across the board, all of our core operating segments have shown strong operating results.

As I mentioned earlier, Newport Residences was a great launch for us. And then we've had a very resilient performance with so-called the commercial portfolio, comprising office and retail. We're still doing really well and trading above actually the market average. And the U.K. commercial has held steady, too.

On the residential market in Singapore, I think this year, we've continued to see a good, stable price growth. So far, I think year-to-date, it's about 1.4% according to the URA private residential price index. And the volume has been about slightly over 4,000 units year-to-date, about 4,100. Are we going to hit the 10,000 that the market did last year? May not. I think it's -- and primarily, it's because there's been less launches in the first half this year. So, let's see how the back half stacks up. But I think we should get within the range of maybe 8,000 to 10,000 by the time we end this year. But yes -- so it's been a really good start for us and actually underpinning our entire first half has been a strong Singapore property development revenue and profit.

Noticeably absent from this, our capital recycling gains. We have certainly pushed hard for the first half this year. But I think with a lot of different factors such as the Middle East conflict, which continues to be quite prolonged and rages on, as well as the fact that we've seen a lot of turbulence here and there. I mean, the U.K. went through their own political upheaval with the change of government and all that. So, I think that has dampened a bit of investor optimism in the first half. But I see that momentum coming back now. So, our divestments will probably be more weighted on the second half.

I'm not sure whether they will complete in the second half or into next year. But certainly, there are several in the pipeline, and we hope to be able to share more exciting news on that. But as mentioned at previous analyst and media briefings, I mean, capital recycling is going to be a core part of our DNA and our business as usual in future. So, we really got to get that ramped up, and that will really provide a stronger base for our results.

Going into the next slide, we have our NAV and shareholder returns. So, you can see that predominantly, I think NAV and RNAV are pretty stable. This year, we declared an interim dividend of $0.06, which is double what we declared for the half year of last year. And obviously, we have made a commitment to the market that we will hit a minimum of 35% dividend payout. So, we're leaving it more for the full year. And share price performance, and this was as of year-to-date as of 30th June, but obviously, we are all very pleased to see the rally today.

Our segment analysis and if you look at the fair value, I mean, our assets have ticked up slightly from $35 billion to $36 billion. And business segments or the IP, DP, there are some changes in terms of geography as well. But predominantly, I think that really fluctuates depending on how much DP we have at any one point in time. You will notice that this year, we haven't made any significant investments. Neither, as I mentioned earlier, have we made any significant -- sorry, we haven't made any significant divestments. And in terms of investments, we have mainly made 2, and those are the 2 GLS sites that we acquired in Singapore. And one is Tanjong Rhu Road and the other is Peck Hay, which is Scotts Road based of CanningHill area. So, these are -- this is the completed project, Lumina Grand at Bukit Batok West Avenue 5, I mentioned.

Norwood Grand, 92% sold and just TOP-ed earlier this month, so about 2 weeks ago. And then our upcoming project completions for the rest of this year, we have CanningHill Piers, our JV with CapitaLand, as well as the Myst and both are substantially sold. As mentioned earlier, the only investments we made this year were the 2 GLS sites in Singapore and added together with the rest of our land bank, I think we have a healthy launch pipeline of 2,200. We're comfortable with this level, and that positions us well going forward. And we obviously look forward to unveiling Lucerne Grand. That's in Lakeside Drive in -- out in Jurong West and will have magnificent views. And I really hope the project will be well received.

We're doing just a little bit of marketing here for the project. So, you can see it's 5 towers, 17 stories each. And we think we designed it well, and it's directly connected to the Lakeside MRT station. So, there's always a very important amenity that buyers look at nowadays. So, please spread the word in October when we launch this, hopefully, this will garner a strong reception.

This just shows you a little bit about our 2 projects that we are -- legacy assets that we are redeveloping, which all of you are very familiar with now. One is Newport Plaza, which is the name of the whole development, which was the former Fuji Xerox Towers. And then the other is Union Square, which is the former Central Mall, Central Square that whole development there. So it's coming along nicely, both of them. And as I mentioned earlier, Union Square Residences, the sales have also caught up really well. And we're really excited.

The office market continues to remain strong. So, when these 2 office assets are ready, so for Newport Tower, it will be in second half of next year. That's the office component of Newport Plaza. That will be second half of next year. So, that will add about 220,000 square feet of NLA to our portfolio. And the Union Square will be sometime in 2029, and that will be 250,000 square feet. And obviously, pre-leasing efforts are strongly underway and very encouraged so far by the feedback.

And our hotel portfolio has also bounced back really well, and we've taken the opportunity to continue to revamp some of our assets. So, you can see that the Millennium Knightsbridge Hotel, I mean, renovations are underway, Kings Hotel as well. And then we continue to build out the M Social Hotel in Sunnyvale that has a targeted completion towards the end of this year. And we've also finished the renovation for this Millennium Premier Hotel in Times Square, which is part of the Broadway Hotel. So it's a smaller component of it, a more premier upscale component of it. So, that's just been completed in June. So, we're excited to see that. So far, some people I know have stayed there already, and they're really pleased with it. So, great that we're refreshing our portfolio as we move along.

Just a bit about our industry and sustainability recognitions. And last slide before I hand over to Yim Ming. Obviously, the thing on everyone's mind is when is your strategic review coming out? I know we've taken quite a while on it. We wanted to put -- we wanted to really spend enough time to make sure that we do a thorough review and ensure that we have a proper road map, how we're going to implement the whole strategic -- the whole refreshed strategy and how we're going to get there and ensure that every number that we share with you towards the end of September is properly backed up by how we're going to get there, what's the asset makeup within it. So, very excited to share that with you.

It's more or less complete. I mean, the strategic review got approved by -- final approval by the Board yesterday, but we just need to tweak a few more things and, of course, create some nice pretty infographics to go with it. So, we thought we'll just give ourselves a little bit more time. But yes, suffice to say, it's really -- we're really excited and eager to share this with you at the end of September. So, all good to go here.

Next up, I'll pass it to Yim Ming for the financial highlights. Thank you.

Thank you, Sherman. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

I'll start off with a segmental analysis. So, this revenue growth across all segments, increase of 61% in first half of '26. EBITDA stands strong at $694 million, increase of 25.9%. I'm very pleased to report that PBT and PATMI has both roughly tripled, rising to $404 million and $302 million, respectively.

So, let us delve a little bit deeper into each metric. For revenue, the group posted revenue of $2.7 billion for first half of '26, up from $1.7 billion in first half of '25. So the property development segment remained the largest contributor, with revenue surging 167%. So as Sherman has mentioned the various contributors, and we all know that revenue from Singapore development projects are recognized based on the percentage of completion method. The strong construction progress across these projects also supported the accelerated recognition of revenue during this period. So, kudos to our project team for their excellent execution and for maintaining strong momentum across our projects.

For hotels, the hotel segment delivered a 6.4% increase in revenue, supported by a 4.9% growth in RevPAR. RevPAR growth was recorded across all regions with Singapore up 4%, U.S. up 10% and Australasia up a strong 14%. The strong performance in Australasia was driven by New Zealand hotels, which recorded improvements in both occupancy and room rates. This was partially offset by rest of Asia, where RevPAR were impacted by softer performance in KL, Jakarta and Manila.

Hotel revenue was also boosted by the acquisition of Holiday Inn London, Kensington High Street, which we always call HIK because the name is pretty long. So, we acquired the hotel in December 2025. Hotel has performed strongly since acquisition, achieving an impressive 96% occupancy and is now the largest contributor in the U.K. portfolio. So overall, for hotel, the segment performance reflects broad-based RevPAR growth across our key segments, together with strong contribution from our newly acquired hotel.

Moving on to investment properties. They also delivered a 3.2% increase in revenue, notwithstanding divestments of the Bespoke Hotel Osaka Shinsaibashi and 1250 Lakeside in Sunnyvale last year. So the growth was driven by higher contributions from our U.K. commercial properties, Jungceylon, our mall in Phuket, as well as the living sector in Singapore and the U.K. These stronger contributions more than offset the revenue from the divested assets, once again demonstrating the resilience and continued growth of our investment portfolio.

Now, we move on to EBITDA. EBITDA stood at $694 million, a strong growth of 26% year-on-year. So, as I mentioned this before, EBITDA is an important measure of the group. We look at it for cash generation capability, as well as a key metric that we monitor closely. Our target is always an annual EBITDA of $1 billion, which supports healthy cash generation. So excluding capital recycling gains, all 3 core segments recorded higher EBITDA. So the strong EBITDA was again underpinned by our property development segment, supported by income visibility from our successfully launched projects.

You can see property development EBITDA, they doubled year-on-year. And other than the projects that we mentioned in revenue earlier, JV projects also contributed to this EBITDA. This included The Orie, CanningHill Piers and Kassia. For hotel operations, EBITDA increased by a strong 27% year-on-year. They are supported by higher revenues as well as disciplined cost management.

GOP margin remained resilient at 30%, broadly in line with first half of '25. In key markets of Singapore and London, GOP margins remained particularly strong at 35% and 42%, respectively. As mentioned earlier, New Zealand had good revenue improvement, and this flow along to GOP margins. Australasia GOP margins also expanded from 33% to 35%. So the combination of revenue growth, resilient margins and disciplined cost management drove this hotel operations' EBITDA.

For IP, which is investment properties, EBITDA was slightly lower in first half '26 due to lower capital recycling gains. Just a refresher, for first half of '26, we have recycled Quayside Isle and several strata titles -- strata units in Fortune Centre vis-a-vis '25, where we had a huge recycling gain of City Industrial Building. So importantly, excluding capital recycling gains, the EBITDA contribution was still broadly comparable year-on-year. This once again reflects the underlying performance of our commercial properties as well as our living sector.

I'll move on to PBT. So it improved 189%. So, one interesting fact point is that in property development, takes up 57% of revenue, but 84% of PBT. So the PBT variations are largely -- explanations are largely similar to EBITDA, but it's impacted, as we know, by financing and depre. So, net finance costs decreased significantly by 47% to $145 million. This is supported by an 11% reduction in net interest expense as well as a favorable swing in exchange. The group recorded an exchange gain of $38 million in first half '26 versus an exchange loss of $63 million in first half of '25. I want to highlight that these exchange differences are unrealized translation differences from intercompany loans. They do not represent underlying operating cash flows.

For property development, while the segment delivered a stellar performance, I also want to reiterate that the profits from this segment are inherently lumpy. As we all know, it's dependent whether there's key project milestones, whether there's an EC, there's a handover for overseas, as well as the progress of project completions.

Hotel operations, a significant turnaround. They reversed from a loss of SGD 84 million in first half of '25 to a profit of SGD 42 million in first half of '26. This improvement was largely driven by 2 things. One is the newly acquired HIK, and two is a favorable exchange position from exchange loss in '25 to a gain in '26. This is largely from intercompany loans. So for investment properties, PBT decreased also due to lower capital recycling gains. I sound like a broken record, but it's worth reiterating that CDL accounts for our investment properties at costs. So, what you see in these financial statements has no fair value gains. Instead, they record a depreciation of about $68 million.

Just moving on to capital management. So, we continue to maintain very strong and robust financial fundamentals with a well-balanced debt maturity profile. Gearing stood at 75%, is an increase of 4% over 31 December, '25, largely attributable to the acquisition of the 2 GLS that we have acquired this year as well as $144 million of CapEx on our investment properties, largely for Newport and Union Square.

So looking ahead, we expect healthy cash flows from 4 projects that will achieve TOP this year. Lumina Grand achieved TOP in April, Norwood in August, and we're expecting The Myst as well as CanningHill Piers to TOP in 2026, and these project completions will support the cash generation.

Liquidity position has continued to be very strong, $2 billion of cash, $4.9 billion of committed undrawn credit facilities. So, we have definitely sufficient financial headroom. For all the other metrics, I think interest -- average interest has dropped and then it's now at 3.4%. I know one of the favorite question is what -- where do we see where we end the year at? We have articulated previously, we hope to end the year no higher than 3.5%. So to all the bankers in the room, please help us achieve this objective.

So as shown, the last one is just basically on hedging. So, we don't do any speculative. So, you can see our loans match with the assets that we have, and we have an overall natural hedge about 76% across the key markets. So, financial position in a nutshell, we reiterate we have a strong liquidity position, diversified financing sources and we definitely exercise prudent financial risk management.

So with this, I hand over back to Belinda.

Thank you, Yim Ying and Sherman. We would now like to move to the second part of today's briefing, which is the Q&A. So, please feel free to ask your questions. My colleagues are standing around the room with microphones. And if you have any questions, please raise your hands, and they will come to you. The only thing we request is if you could let us know who you are, introduce yourself and the organization that you represent.

[Operator Instructions] So may I have -- I see pens pointing here. So, maybe let me just take the first question. Tabitha, maybe you kick us off.

Tabitha from DBS here. Congrats on the strong results. My first question is on divestments. So, your progress appears to have been slower than expected this year. Can we expect a more accelerated pace of capital recycling over the next 6 to 12 months? And which assets are in the pipeline? Any of the U.K. legacy assets that you identified previously?

Yes. As I mentioned earlier, we see it as divestments will be weighted more in the second half of this year. But having said that, right, I mean, some of them, especially some are fairly significant divestments. I mean, we are in very advanced stages, but they may not close by this year, so some may trickle into next year. But yes, I mean, as Yim Ming mentioned earlier, I mean, we did record Quayside Isle as a divestment in our accounting. But I don't count that as this year because I already announced it as part of our divestment amount for last year when I presented to all of you our full-year results because I announced it in December, but it only completed in January.

So therefore, to me, this year, we haven't done any divestments and other than some -- a few strata title units at Fortune Centre. But yes -- so that really emphasizes the urgency for us to kick it up for the back half of this year. And plus with regards to going forward, I mean, because I think you mentioned, is it 12 to 18 months or something? But anyway, all that we will share more when we release our strategic review outcome end of next month. That will cover our whole capital recycling efforts for the next few years. And yes, we don't generally have a practice of, I think, disclosing what the assets are. But suffice to say, you're right on the dot. I mean, the legacy U.K. land bank that we had showed earlier, I think the last time when we announced results, we said we had this $800 million of U.K. legacy assets. Those are certainly on the cards, too.

And my second question is on Singapore residential. So, you've been very active in land banking, but with the recent GLS bids at such elevated pricing, will you still continue to look at GLS or en bloc is something that you will consider given the latest measures?

And also on EC projects, you have been working very well for the group and you have 2 upcoming projects not subject to the new rules. But has your stance on participating in the EC market changed?

Yes. We -- look, prices have always been high for GLS sites, right? I mean, any good site that's well located, has strong connectivity will always be hotly contested. So, we will continue to participate. We just have to do so in a disciplined manner. And let's see where we get to. As I mentioned in previous analyst briefings, I think we also need to watch what our pipeline looks like. I mean, we don't want to go back to a point in time like in early 2018 when I had 4,000 units in the pipeline and then suddenly some cooling measure comes out and then our share price was really wrecked.

So, I think we have an optimal pipeline land bank number in mind. So, I think we'll always try to ensure that we replenish on a timely basis because as all of you know, right, I mean, I can reduce our gearing and also save -- conserve more cash by not investing, but it hurts you down the road when you don't have revenue and profits coming in. So, we'll continue replenishing. We continue to look at good land sites. We are privileged to have won 2 this year. We participated in quite a few.

And obviously, the one recent one was Bayshore, where this large consortium that we were leading, I mean, we came in second. So, that was a bit of a pity. But we'll continue to look at future GLS. And likewise, we will look at en blocs as well. I previously mentioned to the audience that en blocs are usually not our preferred method because it's a much more longer cumbersome process, right, to get through the en bloc and there may be more studies that you may need to do, whether it's traffic impact assessments and stuff like that. But it's still something we'll keep in mind. I mean, there are a lot of very, very nice, well-located legacy or agent assets.

So if the opportunity comes up and the pricing is within a range that we deem acceptable, we would certainly be keen to go for it, too. And as for EC sites, yes, the new EC sites will certainly come under a different set of rules and that will moderate things. But having said that, I mean, that will be evident in the bid prices for the land. So, we will also continue to participate, but we will have to obviously moderate what we bid for it.

Okay. Can I move to the next question, please? Okay. Maybe let me take Xuan.

This is Xuan here from Goldman. First question is on the Newport office in Union Square. Can you share what is the CapEx and yield on cost? And beyond this project, are you actually prepared to undertake more redevelopment? Or will you only embark on those when these 2 are completed?

Yes, Xuan. I'll let Yim Ming talk more on the costs. But yes, we are willing to undertake more redevelopments as and when. I think it's appropriate and obviously accretive for us. As mentioned at the full-year briefing to all of you, I mean, we have a few other assets that could potentially go under different schemes. I mean, Newport is under the CBD incentive scheme, where we had a 25% uplift. Union Square is under the strategic development incentive scheme. So, that was a 67% GFA uplift. So we have, for instance, 2 other potential projects that fit under each scheme.

So, there's the City House, which can still go under the CBD incentive scheme. Then there's also -- you remember, we en bloc-ed Delfi. I mean, we own a large part of it, but we bought out the remaining minority shareholders. And so now with full control of Delfi. And obviously, CDL Hospitality Trusts has Orchard Hotel and Claymore Connect, the mall next door. So, that is a potential project that could go under the strategic development incentive scheme as well. So yes, but as mentioned at the full-year briefing, I don't want too many redevelopments going on at the same time because every time you do it, you lose the entire rental income and it's several years of heavy CapEx as you build out these big integrated mixed-use developments.

Yim Ming?

Never really divulge it, but okay. So the PDC for Newport as well as Union Square, I'm talking about the commercial elements. They are in the range of about $1.1 billion and $0.9 billion thereabouts. So, this is based on market prices of the land. So as we all know, Newport was our previous Fuji Xerox. So this $1.1 billion actually reflected the market value of the land at the point of transfer. So clearly, the embedded value is what we have not yet unleashed, which we will, should we do any other capital movements, yes.

So out of which, I think -- I mean, I've mentioned earlier on this time around, in fact, for the last 1, 2 years, we have spent significant CapEx on these 2 properties. So right now, I think the remaining commitments for these 2 properties is also fairly minimal. It's probably in the range of sub-400. You guess yourself.

Okay. Can we move on to the next questions, please? Any hands? Or everybody is very happy with the results. We can go for lunch now.

Okay. Maybe I move to [ Dexter ]. Is it Dexter? Yes.

Can I ask quickly on the -- so obviously, the property development have done very well. You have mentioned obviously about land cost. But what's your sense of the Singapore property market now? Do you think this is the best that we have? Or do you think there's still like -- from what you're planning, is there a long way still to run in terms of prices, in terms of the health of the market right now? Or you're a little bit more conservative on? That's my first part. I'll ask the next one.

Yes, I think the market has entered into a more stabilized phase. As mentioned earlier, I mean, year-to-date price increase for private residential according to URA Index is 1.4%. I think we'll probably end the full year maybe somewhere between 2% to 3% price growth. And I think that's very normal, right? I mean, you keep track with inflation costs and obviously, our development costs have risen as well over the years.

So, I think -- and the units transacted, I mean, whether we hit 8,000 or 10,000 end of this year. I think it's been a very -- it's a very -- there are indications of a very stable market. So far, I'm quite pleased with it. And this is in line, I think, with where the government would like to see the residential market be as well. So yes, we continue to be optimistic about it. I mean, this is our bread and butter.

CDL, we do property development very well. And obviously, Singapore is our strongest market because it's our home ground. So, we will continue, I think, to execute in this market and continue to be on the lookout for the right opportunities and the right GLS land tenders to participate in.

And just 2 more follow-ups. One is on your gearing. You have already made it a priority, but it's gone up again, albeit for the GLS. Is there actually a concrete plan to reduce that target? What the plan is? And on terms of the -- in terms of your strategic review, obviously, you wanted to do in June -- announced it in June. What's the reason for delay? And is it safe to assume that the whole Board has unanimously approved it?

Yes. So, I'll address the gearing one first. Gearing has ticked up, unfortunately, because obviously, we've bought these 2 GLS sites, which we are very excited about. We think they are good purchases, but it does add to our gearing. So it's not at a level that we're comfortable with. I mean, 75% is high. But the good thing is that you will hear -- and again, sorry today that we will be short on details, but you will hear at our strategic review, unveiling of our strategic review outcomes end of next month, how we have a concrete plan to bring it down, a very concrete plan backed by assets and numbers to bring it down to a level that I would think everybody should be very happy with, but we will talk more about that end of next month.

And your other question, strategic review, yes, Board has approved it unanimously yesterday. So really grateful to the Board for standing behind what has been many, many months of work, right? I mean, actually close to a year since we started this. But we still need to tweak certain final parts. I mean, because as management, right, we have to ensure that everything we put out there, we can absolutely deliver. So, there's still some final tweaking we need to do.

Obviously, I was joking earlier about the pretty infographics and all that. But there is a little bit more work to be done to get the whole plan concrete and in shape. So, that's why we needed a bit more time as well. And also, obviously, we're also very busy running the business. So, we thought let's put it at the end of September, so they will give us time without having to rush and put out something that may be slightly unfinished.

Okay. Maybe since it is there, why don't I just take [ Jovi ], then I'll come to you, Kiang, then I'll come that way. So Jovi, maybe let me take your first.

I'm Jovi from DAH Singapore. Just 2. New Grade A office supply is tight in the coming years. Can I just confirm how leasing is progressing for the office space at Newport Plaza and Union Square? Are you able to share any figures?

And I think building on Dexter's question, do you see any new launch prices hitting $4,000 psf?

Orchard Boulevard tender just opened this morning, for example.

Mr. Sheng, why don't you take both questions? But having said that -- I know. I mean, I may look like a bad guy for throwing the tough questions at him. Okay. I'll take the first one, Jovi. I mean, we don't tend to share too much about our pre-leasing efforts. And obviously, pre-leasing really ramps up strongly the closer you get to completion. But having said that, we did share at our -- when we unveiled our full-year results of 2025 that obviously, we are at a 52% pre-lease for Union Square because that was a one single large tenant. But suffice to say, both of them actually, it's been very encouraging. I mean, tenants have been interested, a mixture of large tenants and smaller tenants. But yes, sorry, we don't typically share pre-leasing commitments until we get closer to when the buildings about the TOP.

As for whether resi will hit $4,000, I will let Mr. Sheng answer that.

Actually, $4,000 benchmark is not high actually. Some of the Orchard Boulevard property is already $5,000 plus. So, I think depending on the location and the type of property, the quality, I would expect the new launches to be on the high [ $3,000 ], those in very good locations, right, the Orchard Boulevard you mentioned. Yes.

But you may remember, Jovi, that I mean, the record was set by the mark, right, at Paterson, and that was $6,800 plus per square foot, right? And obviously, there are other developments that have hit $5,000 plus. But whether you're asking whether $4,000 becomes the norm, I mean, that's not for me the case. But there will be some luxury high-end projects that will hit or cross $4,000.

Okay. I'm going to just move back to the front, Yew Kiang first and then after that, pass to [ Rachel ].

Yew Kiang from CLSA. I'm glad to see the higher interim dividend despite the absence of any significant divestment gains. And then I think Sherman alluded that bulk of it will be coming in second half. But if the divestment doesn't come through, is there a risk that your full-year dividend for this year is going to be lower than the previous year?

So, Yew Kiang as mentioned, our dividend policy is now based on a dividend payout ratio, right, minimum of 35% of PATMI, right? So it's whatever PATMI is. So yes, there is a risk. I mean, if we don't hit the same kind of $600 over million like last year, there's a risk the absolute amount will come down, but not the ratio. Last year, we paid out 40%. So, I mean, this year, we could pay out minimum 35%, maybe more. So the ratio will be -- has a floor, but the amount could come down if we don't hit the same thing. So, I mean, we'll just pay out whatever our PATMI is with or without capital recycling gains in there.

Okay, Rachel?

Good to see the share price drop. Actually, just following up on Yew Kiang's question. In second half, do you have any more residential properties that you can recognize to support your second half numbers?

We do, but it's definitely not as strong as first half. First half, we had Lumina Grand, which is the EC TOP. And I can tell you in first half, Norwood as well as Myst had a very high percentage of completion in excess of 90%. So, what we have is going to be our rock-solid Newport, which is more than 80% sold. Currently in June, it is about 50-odd percent completed. So, we'll see the project -- progress of completion by year-end. But relatively, the first half, yes, it will be smaller.

Then my next question is really on hotels. So, I think some of your peers are thinking of paring down their stake. I know it's a bit different for your City Dev hotel portfolio, but what are your thoughts about hotel?

We are planning to share more at the strategic review outcome unveiling end of next month. But maybe I'll turn it over to Eik Sheng, if you wish to talk about our thoughts about our hotel portfolio?

I mean, for the first half, I think, of course, t's still quite volatile, right? I mean -- and because we have such a diversified portfolio, net-net, what we did see is that we have still performed better than 2025. And even though there were some hotels in regions which were impacted, we saw other regions take up the slide as well.

So, I think that's the benefit of having a very diversified portfolio. That kind of principle, I think we will continue to maintain. But I think we will have more to share at a strategy review. I think we can't share too much details at this point.

Just trying to tease it out.

Thank you, Rachel. Well, good to see you again. It's been a while.

Let me just take some questions on the webcast, which is similar to in line with what Rachel just mentioned. So most of the question here is from [ Kotin ] of [ Falcon ].

Most of your competitors are shifting to an asset-light with higher certainty of profitability and cash flows. So under this strategic review, what uniquely distinguishes CDL to stride in the Singapore market? And then the -- so that's the first part.

And then the second part is capital recycling. When others are disposing, what kind of metrics or what kind of thoughts you have when you want to maybe capital recycle? What are the priorities that you will put beyond value and time?

Yes. So for understandable reasons, I will skip the second question because I think we will address that more when we have more concrete details to share. In terms of first question -- and I think I mentioned this to many of you before, I mean, we will never be a fully asset-light company. That's not in our DNA. I think we -- asset ownership is a big part of CDL's DNA, including doing heavy property development. But as I've mentioned before, I mean, and now we're up to $36 billion of assets, right? I mean we do need a portion of our balance sheet to be a bit more asset-light, so we don't get too top heavy.

So yes, I mean, the way to do it is to have a disciplined and systematic capital recycling program that goes on year in, year out. As we are buying new stuff, we should be also divesting some of our either non-core or matured or underperforming assets as we go along. And this cycle should continue alongside with our investments, our continued investments for growth.

On the topic of capital recycling, I also have another question from Vijay of RHB, which is joining us on webcast. In some way, it's related. So, I guess you can use her response. But the first part is the -- can we have an update on fund management segment? The FUM growth has been slow and short of the $5 billion target? And what are your plans for the FUM growth? That's the first one.

But the second one is a little bit more operational. Can we have an update on the living sector portfolio? The PBSA in U.K. segment seems to have softened. So, what's your view on the portfolio performance for the living sector?

Yes. Again, I'm sorry to be such a cop-out, but we will address more details at the -- when we have the session on the strategic review. But fund management is going to play a much bigger leg, a much bigger role for us going forward. Currently, I mean, roughly speaking, our AUM in the fund management side is about SGD 4 billion right now, primarily comprised of the 2 REITs that are CDLHT, as well as CDL Hospitality Trusts as well as IREIT, where we are a co-manager. So primarily comprised of these 2 REITs as well as a few small private gigs. But having said that, I mean, we do have plans to substantially grow this. And obviously, we're going to have to put a much stronger setup in place to ensure we can get there. But yes, we will unveil more details on that next month. What was the other...

Living sector portfolio, in particular, PBSA U.K.

Yes. I mean, of all of our living sector, which currently is mainly in the U.K., where we do the multi-family, which is PRS as we call it. So the U.K. PRS, Japan PRS and U.K. PBSA. I mean, Japan PRS has been the strongest. Our 40 assets, they are really doing exceptionally well. We're seeing strong rental growth. Occupancies are almost full. U.K. PRS has been improving. It was off to a slow start. We were a bit disappointed that it's been improving.

Unfortunately, U.K. PBSA has been a bit of a drag for us. I would say, currently, our yield on cost for the 6 PBSA we own is about 4%. It's not great. I mean, we wish it was higher. U.K., the entire PBSA market has been under some pressure and some structural challenges. And I think I've mentioned earlier to all of you before as well. I mean, with all this conflict going on or trade tensions between China and the U.S., we thought more students from China will go to U.K., but that didn't really happen also.

So, I mean, the U.K. PBSA sector is very dependent on foreign students, especially to drive performance. So yes, that's been disappointing, but we'll continue to monitor. I mean, our exposure is not huge. I mean, yes, I mean, 6 assets, not small, but it's not like a large portfolio of like 20, 30 properties either. So it's manageable for now. But again, we are reassessing all this with a view to taking a decision on whether to expand or shrink or completely divest the portfolio.

Okay. Good. I'm going to move forward. Okay. Let's go with Wilson first. Wilson then Brandon.

Wilson from Jefferies. Just a question on Singapore land banking. So, I think, Sherman, you mentioned how you're looking to replenish but not really overdo it. Is there like a comfortable level of Singapore land bank you are hoping to sustain? And I guess related to that also, what would be the implied kind of steady-state churn rate or number of launches you'd be seeing out of the land bank per year?

And just lastly, on a similar vein, within your Singapore land bank, any preferences for specific regions over others?

Wilson, very sorry to give you a cop-out answer again, and this is not related to strategic review, but very good questions, but we don't typically want to share too much here because, again, it's information that could be used against us, right? Once people know what's our optimal land banking amount, what regions we prefer, what's sort of our churn rate or target churn rate every year. I don't think this is good for us to share this publicly. So, apologies for that.

Okay. Maybe we'll move down to Brandon.

I wouldn't ask anything to do with the SR. So, just on the results for first half, we saw that the hotel numbers were quite strong. I think earlier, it was mentioned that there were some cost savings. Could you let us know what these cost savings are? And also if we were to take away the ForEx gain from SGD, what would be the core EBITDA and PBT growth of the hotel side? Because when I look at the GOP margin, it seems kind of flat year-on-year, right?

Your question always must be very difficult, right? So the exchange that the hotel segment has -- okay, it's a little bit convoluted because it spans over different segments. So, while we always associate M&C as hotel, they are not only in hotel. They do have investment properties as well as others. But looking at where we are for hotel operations -- so the PBT reversed from $84 million to $42 million. So the $42 million included exchange in the range of about $30 over million.

So the underlying performance is still positive. But having said that, I also want to reiterate that for the first half of the year, usually, that's not the strongest part for hotel. We all know that the winter months, the Europe hotels as well as the U.S. hotels don't do as well. So it's not exactly linear. The second half would look a lot better.

Okay. And my second question is with regards to the investment sentiments for U.K. and Japan. So, obviously, the interest rate environment hasn't been that favorable. So, could you maybe just share some color on what buyers are thinking right now?

Sorry, Brandon, buyers regarding, relating to?

Relating to your potential sale of the U.K. development sites and Japan. I mean, you don't have to tell me whether you can sell. It's more like I just want to understand how is the market doing.

So if you really look at -- I mean, clearly, we all know that our clear divestment, we have highlighted the U.K. legacy. And we have done in U.K. -- we're heavy in U.K. Our total assets in U.K. is about 13% and of which, of course, I think we have obviously 3 chunks, right? I mean 4 chunks, hotels, which are doing very well; living sector, which is very resilient. U.K. commercial, clearly, I think that was something that we tried to put in a REIT and that has been stalled for a while.

And of course, the last one being the development portfolio. So, development portfolio is the part that we are looking, obviously, to actively -- this legacy, we have indicated. No strings attached, we're trying to do that. The buyers are largely -- we all know, is going to be -- a large pool of is likely to be Middle Eastern. And clearly, in the current climate, of course, I think there's a few risks, right? I mean, firstly, in Middle Eastern, we all know that the monies -- of them being able to take money is not exactly the easiest. That's number one.

I think forever, there's this interest rate. They are saying that, obviously, the interest rate hike invisible, you could possibly squeeze better earnings. I think distressed sales is quite evident today, but we are not in a state of a distressed sale. I mean, we still believe that we have very good assets, especially Pavilion. But yes, the natural buyer pool is naturally more of the Middle Eastern.

Yes. Just to add to that, I mean, yes, we will not take whatever price is on the table just so we can meet our divestment targets. I think we don't want to leave too much money on the table. And from time to time, we do get offers for assets within this legacy land bank. But if it doesn't hit our required targets, we won't sell it. While I am urgent to want to -- under some urgency to want to divest it, but again, I mean, I can't do that to CDL, right, by leaving too much money on the table. And some of them have good potential. It's just that it's -- it will take too long for us to go and try to unlock or recognize the potential.

Regarding Yim Ming, what she mentioned, she's not wrong. I would say -- I mean, actually, many of these development sites, a natural buyer also would be a U.K. developer. And we have been in talks as well. But again, she's not wrong in saying that it's Middle Eastern money because if you look at the site we sold last year, Ransomes Wharf, that was the London Square, a U.K. developer, which is owned by Aedas anyway, which is -- sorry, owned by Aldar, which is a Abu Dhabi developer. So yes, maybe much of the money comes from the Middle East, but that's not the only pool. I mean, we have been in talks with U.K. developers, too. So, I think that's also a very natural buyer for some of the sites, especially if they already have there a strong development team and network within the U.K.

Okay. I'm mindful of time. So, I'm just going to take one or last 2 questions. So, I'm just going to pass to Mervin first.

Mervin from JPMorgan. Maybe we can move to Slide 21. I have phrased it in the past, but we have a lot of U.K. debt. I noted that you issued an MTN program where you can issue perps. Rather than waiting for any U.K. land bank disposal, should we not issue some cheaper perps to pay off this more expensive U.K. debt or take on more thing of that considering your yield on cost from PRS is 4%, which probably doesn't -- PBSA, sorry, that doesn't cover perhaps the U.K. borrowing cost? What are we doing in terms of the capital management.

So you're right. I mean, by debt, we do a little bit of cross-currency swaps where we borrow in SGD and then we do a cross-currency swap to U.K. to service our debt. We service our U.K. debt of which -- if you look at U.K. debt composition, the fixed ratio is possibly lower. We kind of missed the window back in 2018, 2019. There was never a perfect window to do that, except at the expensive price.

So having said that -- so we have been doing what you suggested. But to open that a little bit more, that still leaves you with a currency risk. That's not exactly what we were trying to usually posture. So, while GBP has been a lot more stable relative to USD comparing the last 2 years, it still ends up with some exchange exposure, which we possibly might not really want to do that. So typically, every time when it comes close to the refinancing, we do look at every debt closely. We will look at all the instruments, whether it's cheaper to refinance using the natural loan -- natural currency whether it's cheaper for us to do a cross-currency swap or basically just leave the exchange open and borrow in SGD.

A simple -- I mean, very simply, I think everybody would think that I can borrow it sub-3%, issue bonds sub-3%, issue Singapore perps up 4%. And in U.K., that is possibly almost 5%. Why don't you just do that with an arbitrage? But very frankly, the exchange movements, we have done that in the past, it's very easy to tip over with a 1%, 2% savings. So the savings in real is possibly in the range of about 1% to 1.2%. So it's still a risk movement if you ask me.

I'm asking because CDLHT has achieved 3% depreciation from issuing perps to reduce borrowing costs. Anyway, we can discuss this offline.

Yes. So, perps pricing is typically about 1% higher than traditional debt. So, we have done bonds, very frankly, at low 2s -- mid-2s, sorry. So it is still a little bit pricey for us. Yes, it does make the metrics look better. It does make your U.K. numbers look a bit better if I were to attribute a lower financing cost. But very frankly, if we want to do that, I will just keep issuing a lot of SGD bonds and basically have a more open exposure of currency risk. And since we are very, very clear that U.K. legacy is what we want to divest, I think we can still give it some time for another 1, 2 years, yes.

And final question for me. I presume the hotel is still considered core part of the business, but maybe I don't know if Sheng want to talk about where is the greatest opportunity within the hotel business?

I think we're not giving anything away, but we've always done pretty well in the Gateway City hotels, where I think we see both strong demand and, of course, the capital appreciation in terms of the value of the assets that we have. So, I think that's probably the winning formula that we've had through the years, especially when we do divest them, right? I mean, we've seen in the past with Millennium Seoul Hilton, recently with the Bespoke Osaka as well. So, I think that's likely. I mean, I don't think we would change that formula for now, but I think there's only so much we can share at this point. Yes.

Yes. So just to add on to that, Mervin, I mean, yes, hospitality will still remain a key part of our business. Portfolio may get streamlined, but it is -- continues to be a key leg of our business and does contribute strongly when it's managed well.

Okay. I'm mindful that we are just heading into lunch time. So if there are any more burning questions, if there are -- there is burning questions. One more. Okay. It has to be burning Xuan.

I'll give you that last question then.

Xuan here from Goldman. Just a quick question on the share performance plan. Can you share what is the key indicator that's tied to it? And is there any max limit of what can be issued each year?

I think it's not a maximum limit that I recall. But in the past, when we had it at the AGM, we also flagged that the dilution is very, very minimal, right? I mean, we are issuing out of the treasury shares that we have bought back. And as to the KPIs, we have not released what they are exactly to the public. But I think it's safe to say that they are tied to the long-term goals of the company. And going forward, they should be tied to the KPIs of the strategic review as well.

And any way to close off, I think for the shares, right, don't worry, we're not paid that much. The dilution impact is so immaterial that it is not -- definitely not completed. Yes.

Okay. All right. If that is the case, I just want to ask if the panel has any closing remarks or..

I look at the big picture. It is not quite often that we look at everything in single isolation. What we want is to be the best of its kind. And I will not hesitate to do that. Of course, some of the strategy that I'm going to have, I cannot tell you now because it is impossible to share some of the foresight. So, I wish you well.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Chairman.

So, [Foreign Language]. I think that's the thing, right? So stay tuned, stay with us. At the end of September, we'll also be sharing more.

So ladies and gentlemen, we have really come to the end of the briefing. And on behalf of the CDL management and my fellow colleagues in the room, so thank you so much for attending. Thank you to all the webcast audience as well for your support. For those at the hotel, there are refreshments outside. I hope it suits your lunch time.

So, please continue to stay with us and catch up with us over coffee outside. Thank you so much.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, friends from the media, analysts, bankers, investors and fellow CDL colleagues. My name is Belinda, and I'm the Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at CDL. As we are still within the Chinese New Year celebration period, so I take this opportunity to wish everyone in this room, a happy healthy and prosperous year ahead. [Foreign Language] So on behalf of the CDL management, welcome to CDL's briefing on its unaudited financial results for the full year ended 31st December 2025. Now this is a hybrid briefing format with both in person here at the M Hotel Singapore and those joining us live on webcast. and joining us virtually. So thank you all for being here with us this morning.

For today's briefing, in line with CDL's environmental sustainability conviction, we will not be providing printed materials. Instead please scan the QR code on the screen to download or view the following documents that were uploaded to SGXNET as well as our website before trading this morning. Now on this website, you will find a copy of the detailed financial statement. A press release summarizing the key highlights of our FY 2025 performance presentation deck that the management team will be using in a very short well. So for all our guests joining us live on webcast, you will similarly be able to download these documents, which are available on CDL website. I would like to introduce to you our CDL management panel. In the center, we have our Executive Chairman, Mr. Kwek Leng Beng. On his right, we have Mr. Sherman Kwek, our Group CEO, on Chairman's left is Mr. Kwek Sheng, our Group Chief Operating Officer; and on his left, Mr. Chia Yang Hong, our Group General Manager; and nearest to me, Ms. Yang Yin Ming, Group Chief Financial Officer. Now the format of today's briefing will be in 2 parts. We will kick off with a presentation of some of the key highlights of our performance followed later by a Q&A session with our panelists. So without further ado, I would like to invite Mr. Sherman Kwek, our Group CEO, to kick start the presentation. Sherman, please.

Good morning, everyone. Good to see you here again. It feels like the last analyst briefing was a long time ago, but really it's every 6 months, and happy to be here, albeit every year I see you, I have less hair but good to see you all. And this year, obviously, we're going to have a more positive and upbeat results to report. So we started off with a slide that shows you, I think, the key achievements that we did last year as we committed to everyone we were going to accelerate our capital recycling -- and we're happy to announce that we have achieved $2 billion in divestments -- and we were very selective in our acquisitions. So really, what we invested were in 3 GLS sites in Singapore as well as a hotel in London, in Kensington.

And at the same time, I mean, you can see that last year was a very strong year for us in the Singapore local market. In terms of residential sales value, we achieved $4.35 billion, which is the highest in our group 63-year history. So we're really pleased with that. The 1.657 number includes ECs as well. So if we use the corresponding number released by the URA, including ECs, it's about a 13% market share, shall be higher if we excluded ECs because last year, we sold more non-ECs and last year, it was good to see that the market came back with more stability and strength. Last year, the total developer new home sales was about 10,800 with a modest price increase of 3.3%. So this has really outpaced the 3 years preceding that where annual volume is about 6,000 to 7,000 and of course, the high was in 2021, right, when we saw about 13,000 new home sales and a price growth of close to 11%. So actually, we like that. I mean we think that that's a sign of a more stable, healthy market where moderate price growth, but the volumes have really come back and we've also seen that the core central region, the CCR has also come back in favor. I mean there were a couple of years where really the RCR and the OCR will getting all of the action. But last year, it was good to see that CCR was finding favor. Again, I think it's a change in lifestyle.

And of course, whichever region you're talking about, I mean bulk for the buyers tend to be Singapore and majority, Singaporeans or PR. So there's a very small percentage of foreigners buying. And that's same with Newport residents as well, which our profile later. And across our commercial portfolio, you can see that Singapore office, Singapore retail and, of course, are also sizable U.K. commercial, which is the 3 commercial buildings we have there, all showing very stable and strong occupancies. And our hotels managed to eke out a higher -- slightly higher RevPAR, even though globally, the performance was quite mixed last year.

So in terms of our FY 2025 financial highlights, we have revenue of $3.6 billion, which was a 9.7% increase from the year before. And obviously, we have a really nice PATMI of around 630 , up over 200%. PATMI have been high [indiscernible] Yes, so called even closer to $800 million, not for the fact that we thought it would be a prudent time to do some impairments. So we did $155 million of impairments and for impairments and foreseeable losses, mainly for our 2 China commercial properties 1 was this Shenzhen, which is a business part and business parts are primarily office in nature. So the commercial market is really struggling very badly in China, which should not come as any surprise to all of you. And then the other 1 is also for commercial complex in Shanghai. So that was a bit of a pity, Otherwise, we really could have reported an even stronger set of results. But Nonetheless, we're still happy at where we have been our NAV and our -- well, I'll use the NAV, the 1 where fair value IPs and hotels, I mean, is narrowing. I mean -- despite the fact that we did a lot of capital recycling last year and had contracted divestments of $2 billion. But NAV has gone up because as we sell and especially above book value, we're really crystallizing a lot of value. And obviously, that goes into retained earnings, which drives up the NAV. So really glad to see us narrowing this gap and unlocking the value and as some of you would have seen this morning when we released our results, I mean, hopefully, the dividend comes as a nice -- as a welcome news to our shareholders. We proposed a final dividend -- ordinary dividend of $0.25. So added to the 3 that we paid in the interim, it's $0.28. And which is a 40% payout ratio. And at the same time, we've also committed to a new dividend policy because in the past, it was -- while as management, we had always articulated that we will try to pay out 1/3 every year. But was really never formalized in our policy. So we thought, I think it would be a good thing to really show our commitment to sustainable shareholder return. So we will pay a minimum of 35% of reported PATMI every year. And share price last year really has rebounded nicely. I mean, of course, we had some of our own internal issues in the earlier part of the last year, but we're glad that we managed to get them resolved. And despite the macroeconomic challenges we pushed forward.

Global portfolio. Obviously, the 1 worth looking at is the bottom line because that's where we fair value, so you get a full sense of our assets line. Singapore has always makes up around half of our asset base with the rest spread towards U.K., China and others. Yes. So as mentioned earlier, I mean, we are really strong hard to ensure that we recycle capital at a higher pace, especially since we wanted to try to bring our gearing down. Gearing did go up in the end because we ended up winning more GLS in Singapore than we expected. And of course, we had that hotel acquisition but all in all, Gearing is at a manageable level, and we will target in the midterm towards bringing it down in a very significant manner.

So just to give you a snapshot of the last couple of years from 2023 to 2025, what our capital recycling focus has been like. most years, the blue bar, the investments acquisitions will usually surpass the yellow bar. But last year, we were fortunate. I mean, where the gold bar actually was higher, and again, that was because of our efforts to accelerate our recycling. Two things I want to mention here. So 1 some of you would have heard me say this before, is that the gold bar includes all the land we buy in Singapore. But obviously, when we develop into residential and sell the individual units, that's not in the blue bar. So it's a bit of a mismatch and it works against us in a way, but it's a way to be very disciplined, okay?

The second thing to mention is that sometimes you will see now results financially. I mean, in our accounting, there may be some difference in terms of when the acquisitions or divestments happen, but we don't double count. So an example is [ STN, ] right? I mean we signed the land tender with the government and were awarded the land in December 2024, but we only made payment like in January, right? So I count that in our acquisitions in 2024. But cash-wise, the cash only left our balance sheet and therefore, financially, P&L-wise as shown in 2025.

Likewise, last year, as you know, we announced a bevy of divestments and all were completed in 2025, except for Keyside arm, okay, in Sentosa. That 1 was -- so when the deal goes hard, when I sign and it goes hard, we show it as a divestment. So that was in December last year, so just 3 months ago, but we actually completed in February. So again, a bit of this accounting mismatch, but we -- as I said, we don't double count. So we show that strictly in the year that we announced it, that's the year that gets shown at, but sometimes on the P&L may be a bit different.

This is our Singapore residential launch pipeline. So really happy that we have a launch pipeline of 1,820 and we look forward. I mean to, hopefully, replenishing a little bit more land this year, even though we are very fortunate to have won 1 of the first few tenders of the GLS tenders of the year, which is [ Tangzhong Ru, ] which is an amazing location, and we're very excited to unveil our project there. And that's a 90-10 JV with our main contractor, [indiscernible] and as you all know, the other sites were acquired last year, which is Woodlands Drive 17, Senja Close and Lakeside and Lakeside will be launching in the second half of this year. And you can also see some of the launches on the right-hand side that we had launched 2 last year, 1 this year, 1 was the Orito and that has done really, really well above our expectations. The Zion grant, which also did really well. So I was very relieved and pleased to see that. And of course, a new port which thankfully has also done well, which we launched in January.

So this is a Newport residence. This is part of a mixed-use complex, used to be the Fuji Xerox tar. So we're revamping it into residential at the top, service departments in the middle and office in the lower 1/3 of it. And it is freehold and really glad that I think we have achieved good sales average pricing that we've achieved so far. I know there's been a bit of confusion in market because the [ 337 ] is actually what we've priced it at and target to achieve for the whole project. But -- so currently, it's around 3,200 thereabout. So that's the actual pricing. So sorry if there was a bit of confusion the way we wrote the news release. But really excited about this project, we really designed it to be a super luxury -- ultra-luxury residence. And of course, I'm still waiting for that -- that unique by the contact us to buy that very special penthouse unit that 13,000 square-foot single-story penthouse unit with dedicated lift just for that unit and dedicated car parks as well. So Hopefully, we will secure that buyer in the course of the next few months.

Then there's our commercial property, which our commercial properties in Singapore have been very resilient. The last couple of years, the office and retail markets have been very stable, both from a rental and occupancy perspective. So good to see that our buildings are doing well as well. One big news was the strong pre-leasing commitment that we did at Union Square Central, which is the former Central Mall, and we bought Central Square next or from Fast Hospitality Trust. Magee, it was total of 3 sites amalcamated it together. And developing this new mixed-use development. That's going to be very exciting when it's done. So the office component, we have leased up 52% to a single tenant, a government agency. So really happy with it for a very long lease. And -- but the project will only complete in around 2029, so a couple more years to go.

And then we have also driven AEIs. As you all remember, in 2018, we did the AEI for Republic transfer, Tower 1. So including the lobby and everything, that was really big works. That took us 18 months and around $60 million to get that AEI done. So that was a very, very tough effort, but really happy. We've seen very positive rental reversions after doing that. And so we thought we can't leave out its young smaller sibling, which is Repaplaza Tower 2. So we've done that now and more or less completed AEI just progressively doing the Lyft modernization. So really happy with that to and committed occupancy is 100%. Then the cities were more where we also went through a big AEI. I hope some of you have been to see it since we've completed and very excited with the mall and how it looks now, and it seems to have received a very positive feedback from all the visitors.

Global hotel portfolio, and we continue, I think, to look towards refurbishing some of our hotels that are located in strong locations so that we can continue to optimize our portfolio. So -- we have M Social Resort Penang as well as Social Hotel in New York Downtown, both of which used to be branded Millennium. So these are the hotels. And then, of course, we have ongoing development in Sunnyvale, which is in California. -- and that's for a 263-room hotel as well as we are currently undergoing the AEI for this Millennium Hotel that we have in Knightsbridge on Sloane Street.

Global living sector portfolio, it's gone down slightly because we did sell off our Sunnyvale PRS. So the Sunnyvale multifamily asset. So it's around 3.7% now versus 3.9% before Sing dollars, but it's still a sizable portfolio I have to admit, we have not monetized it as fast as we should have really us building up this was, firstly, a diversification for CDL, other than doing our usual residential for sale and offices and retail for lease. This was something that was -- the living sector is something that we really believe. And then -- it's something that plays up to our expertise, right, of development -- property development, asset management as well as hospitality, right, service. So we really focused on investing in this sector over the last couple of years and I built it to actually, I would say, a very good scale -- and there are many assets in there that are performing very well. But we did this not only to enhance recurring income and diversify asset class, but really was also to seed our fund management. So I have to admit the fund management efforts have been slower than we would have liked. But we are very, very focused on that. So this year, I hope to really accelerate that. So I can come back with good news to you by the time the half year results swing around. So -- but it's a very, very good and nice portfolio for us and lots in there that we can play around with from a private and a public markets perspective.

I thought I'd just put up this slide also because I realized that in reading the analyst research reports, many of you occasionally will write about these sites. So -- and yes, this is what we call legacy. It's not super old, but it is from acquired between 2013 and 2017, okay? And it's -- there's an external development manager that's managing all these projects. And we have to say that this portfolio has underperformed. So therefore, we endeavor to recycle this as quickly as we can. You will see that we have sold Ransoms Wharf -- so we did that at the end of 2024. So we're happy that was sold for about GBP 70 million. But -- and then of course, Sydney Street was a development where it's 9 units, and we have gradually sold that. And so all those 9 units are sold out. But there are all these other sites that we have to clear out, right? There's [ per billion ] road, which is currently operating as a car park. And that 1 should give us a very strong gains because we are receiving a lot of very outsized offers for that property. It's very near the Harrods. Then there's a Stag Brewery, which is a 1 million square foot of land development in Richmond in London. Stag Brewery is probably the site of this brewery operations, hence called stage. It's in Mortlake, Richmond. So this one, as you all would have seen in the news as well, last year in 2025, we finally got planning approval after 10 years. So -- it's -- now that we got the planning approval, we want to -- definitely, we don't want to build it out. So we're going to move to see how we can monetize this as quickly as we can. Development house is actually an office building that has permits for redevelopment. But we are assessing, again, how best to unlock value there. Teddington Riverside is a bit said, it was a land that we bought and then we actually have built out and completed the buildings with a total of 224 residential units, but unfortunately, 148 remain unsold. So -- it's something that we really have to accelerate more and some things we're looking at are potential bulk sales of the units to buyers that may be interested -- so -- and then the lastly, CheshanStreet is a very upmarket place in Belgravia, -- but -- it's 6 units, but again, took a very long time, and we only sold half of it. So -- so again, all this with ransoms, it was almost close to $1 billion. So now it's about , it's about $800 million that's sitting on our balance sheet. So this is something that we are very committed to unlocking the value there and monetizing it. So I just wanted to flesh this up since I know it's been mentioned quite a few times.

I won't spend too much time here. But last year, we were also grateful to have received industry accolades. And we did make a sizable donation us in partnership with our Chairman, Queen. So together, we donated the SIT, and there's an administrative building there named in favor of him, in allo of him. And of course, we also launched the CDL EcoTain City Square Mall, which has been very, very popular with a lot of visitors, especially those with interest and sustainability. And of course, the rest of the accolades on the right.

As mentioned earlier, we endeavor to give sustainable shareholder returns. I -- this was some of the feedback that we have gotten from investors, which is why is there no clear dividend policy articulated. So I think we really discussed it as a management and a board, and we decided that, look, let's really commit to paying minimally 35% based on our reported PATMI, of course, this year, for 2025, we have decided to do a 40% payout ratio. And I think, yes, I mean, there are some companies out there that probably have more aggressive dividend payout ratios. But I think we also need to ensure that we leave some flexibility. There's always a balancing act between us using the cash to pay down debt or to deploy for new acquisitions and investments. So we thought will give us some flexibility. But at least it's a floor and it's a commitment to our shareholders, and it's something that's sustainable, right? I mean if I -- go out announcing some super high number. It may come back to TripMomin the future. So yes, we're happy to announce a total dividend of $0.28 for the year and a record TSR last year 62%. -- last slide for me before I pass the Yim Ming, we continue, okay, to look towards our value creation and our value unlocking. We have to continue to drive forward with our capital recycling. As I've mentioned to you all before, this is not a one-off that we're going to do for 1 year or 2 years. From now on, capital recycling to be every much a part of our business as property development and asset management, right? I mean we don't just develop properties to sell or manage our office and retail portfolio. I mean we're also in the business of investment, right? I mean, things like our Osaka Hotel, we buy it. And 2 years later, we sell it for 60%, 70% above valuation that's a sign of a good investor, and we will not hesitate to monetize opportunities like that. So really, we have the capital recycling is business as usual for us. And to me, it's it's core, okay, because it's part of what we do. And in portfolio optimization, we continue to optimize and see where are the geographies and asset classes we need to be in.

Fund management. As I mentioned earlier, something we do need to pay more attention to and put in more effort into accelerating need to continue to keep our eyes focused on the ROE, although that's more of a midterm thing because I need all the other pieces to fall in place and then ROE will take care of itself. Capital management, we are still prudent about managing our cash, our gearing recurring income. We continue to drive that, and that's been helped also by our living sector portfolio. Diversification is still important. Singapore is an important market to us. We'll always remain probably our biggest market but we do need to have a diversification across geographies and asset classes and of course, sustainability, right, something we have to do our part for the world. And I guess before I hand it over to Yim Ming also, I may as well just mentioned this since it's also people in the market have gotten wind of it is that sometime in around September, last year, we engaged a global advisory firm to help us do a strategic review of our entire strategy and operations. We are still in the process.

The first step that they did was do an investor perception audit, so reach out to a slew of our buy side and sell side in order to really get feedback for us, right? How are we viewed by the market, by shareholders, by investors, by analysts, where are the perception gaps? And this feedback has been extremely helpful and has allowed us to then journey on together with them and are so for management and the Board to really go on this journey where we want to come up with something that will be -- that will close this perception gap. And that will give you even better guidance as to where CDL is heading towards and allow you to measure us and hold us more accountable for what we say we're going to do. So we're still in the process, so I can't talk too much about it.

But in terms of time line, I hope that by no later than the middle of the year, by June, no later than June. I hope we will be able to announce something to everyone.

Okay. Thank you very much on to Yim Ming and I'll field your questions in Q&A later.

Thank you, Sherman. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

So I'll start off with this chart. So pleased to report there's growth in all 3 operating segments across all 3 key metrics, Revenue, EBITDA and PBT. And 3 is my favorite number. Okay. For revenue, the group reported a 9.7% increase in revenue for FY 2025. This slide shows revenue by each segment. While PD contributes 33% to total revenue in FY 2025. The increase in revenue is actually attributable to this segment, which increased by 24%. The steadfast execution and successful sale launches are commendable, and our Singapore PD segment delivered a stellar performance. Projects that contributed included the Mist Norwood Grand and Union Square residences as well as the sale of ransomware and the office component of 1 city center in Suzhou. Joint ventures are equity accounted for, and the revenue do not include these JV projects. On a like-for-like basis, the revenue from these JV projects would have contributed $1.8 billion to 2025 revenue. Hotel operations ticks up 46% of total revenue and increased 1.7% in FY 2025, following a 1.3% increase in RevPAR. The increase in RevPAR is due to Australia and New Zealand portfolio, New York hotels, rest of Europe with the acquisitions of Houghton Paris Opera in May 2024 and holiday in Kensington in December '25. One outstanding hotel -- it's also in U.K., which is a bit more Minar. Please go visit day if you visit the U.K. This more than covers the power performance in Singapore, where RevPAR decreased 5.5% due to -- not the other hotels that we didn't do as well as Beijing hotel, which has weaker or because of the China economy slowdown. For investment properties, the revenue is driven by higher contribution from City Square Mall as well as Tongchuang Shopping Center in Pukit, following -- reaping the benefits of our AEI programs. [indiscernible] $5 billion for FY 2025, 43% higher than 2024. EBITDA demonstrates strong cash generation and is one focus area we look at very closely. Our target is typically a $1 billion annual EBITDA for healthy cash generation. This outperformance $1.5 billion EBITDA was due to our capital recycling gains. PD property development EBITDA increased 81% to $261 million for 2 other than projects earlier mentioned for revenue contributors. The other JV projects that contributed to EBITDA included the fully sold EC Copen Grand, which optinTOP this year, Kenning, the Orica as well as Temporent. .

For FY '25, Sherman mentioned, we made a $8.5 million of foreseeable losses. For hotel operations, EBITDA increased 35% for FY 2025. This EBITDA included capital recycling gains from JW Marriott and comfort in -- excluding such capital residement gains and impairment write-backs. -- hotel operations EBITDA dropped slightly by about 5% with cost pressures as GOP margins fell 1.4% due to weaker performance largely in Singapore and Rest of Asia.

For investment properties, they are the biggest contributor to EBITDA, contributing 46% of total EBITDA. This segment saw substantial capital recycling gains, offset by impairment losses relating to 2 commercial properties in China, 1 of which is slated for sale and has been transferred to asset held for sale. Notwithstanding the our resilient performance of our commercial properties and the growing living sector reflected about 8% of performance in this asset performance.

Next, we'll move on to PBT by segment. The explanations are largely similar to EBITDA earlier. PBT more than doubled to $772 million. Once again, investment properties is the biggest contributor. And all 3 segments reported improvements in PBT versus FY 2024. This can is peak. For hotel and investment properties, they improved by 33% and 145%, respectively. And property development improved multiple force. This is due to the fact that profits from property development is lumpy in nature. So in last year, there was no EC TOP. There was high financing costs, and there was construction delays. 2025, we have a TOP for 1 of the EC as well as very good construction progress and the softer financing environment. PBT is impacted by financing costs. On financing costs, our gross interest expense has decreased by 12% to $520 million. We hope to see this trend further down in 2026, sounds like Broken record, we depreciate our investment properties and in challenging circumstances like today with where we encounter valuation headwinds. I think this conservative accounting policy of depreciating does benefit in its benefits. On capital management, continue to have strong and robust fundamentals. We have a balanced debt expiry and currency profiles for bonds expire in 2026, we will look to issue new bonds. Gearing at 71% vis-a-vis last year at 69%. So we mentioned other than the $1.7 billion acquisitions for 3 GRS in the hotel. We also paid for Syntiant site as well as CapEx on our investment properties. So this is offset by our recycling efforts of IB that Sherman mentioned earlier.

Cash of $2.1 billion with uncommitted undrawn credit facilities of 4.2 very, very strong position. But if you wonder why is the cash drop from $3.1 billion to $2.1 billion is because we have set it money in December 2025 to pay for Syntiant. So interest cover also improved to 3.6x on the back of stronger EBITDA. So for fixed debt, we are at 44% down. 70% of Singapore debt is actually fixed and 11% of GPP debt is fixed. So this puts us in an advantageous position. We are able to assist better opportunities or rate cuts by the Bank of England. Average borrowing costs went down nicely to 3.7%.

And the last slide for FX risk, we do not take speculative position. We do a lot of natural hedging. So we're very comfortable with a 77% natural hedge. I think if 1 were to ask, why is the renminbi hedge is a little bit low, and we all know that we cannot borrow for land in China, which is why that's a slightly bigger exposure for in. So other than that, we acknowledge there's challenges in USD currency, there's volatility, but we are managing it. It's definitely within our risk tolerance levels as well. So with that, I hand over back to Belinda.

Thank you very much, Sherman and Yim Ming for the presentation. We would like to move to the second part part of today's briefing, which is the Q&A. Please feel free to ask your questions, and my colleagues are standing around the room with microphones. And if you have any queries, those who are joining us on webcast, you may post your questions by clicking on the question tab. So before asking your questions, may we please request that you introduce yourself and the organization turn that you represent. Okay. So I'm going to just go straight into opening up the floor. Okay, I have a Mervin first.

I'm Mervin from JPMorgan. Congrats on the strong results and strong share price performance, which I think reflects the market's confidence in your leadership Sherman. Two questions from me, how we can maximize value, improve the operations. Is there anything particular feedback that resonates with you the most? And where is the main perception gaps. Second, question is on cost of debt, a significant drop to 3.7%. Any guidance for this year? And if you were to sell your U.K. assets, the $800 million, how much is the current U.K. debt at this point? .

Yes. I mean we received a lot of very detailed feedback, which was extremely helpful and some from the analysts seated in this room, those who the firm picked. And -- there were many more gaps, perception gaps than we realized. So -- and I think certainly, 1 of the things we look towards doing is rightsizing our portfolio as well as ensuring that we retweak our so-called capital allocation priorities from a geography and an asset class perspective. So that's something we're still in discussion. I mean -- and there may be some changes that may be coming up. And also, of course, I think 1 of the things that came through very strongly from this exercise was on the disclosure side. While I think I've traditionally viewed us as a company with pretty good disclosure. I think we've been pretty open and transparent about all of our activities and our results and the things we are doing and our strategic priorities. But certainly, one thing that we could do better, I think it's to provide more sign post more way finding for investors to show them how we're going to progress forward in the next couple of years. And to really -- so that they can really figure out for themselves if CDL executes on everything that they have laid out, okay, what will the CDR of 3 years or 5 years from now, what would that look like? And do I like what that looks like, right? So that can also form part of an investor -- so-called determination of whether to invest in our stock. So I think that's the fair thing to do is to provide a stronger guidance and more concrete numbers behind it. So these are the things that we kind of got out from it. Yes, on a more macro -- on a more micro level on the strategy side, there are also quite a few things feedback that I think we take very seriously. Obviously, we can't talk too much about it right now, but it will probably involve rebalancing some of our portfolio, too.

Second one, I think, Yim Ming, you can take.

Yes. For cost of debt guidance, I don't expect anything more than 3.5%, and that's probably conservative. And for U.K., that portfolio, I mean we do central treasury as we have said many times. So we will obviously -- unless we have some good investments would obviously go towards reducing that in entirety. .

Okay. On the first row, maybe Derek take yours off and then move the second one. .

I guess just on the results itself. A bit of a good record Pete, but just a bit of noise over there. If you strip out all the one-off investments impairments, et cetera, what is the core Padme and we could be -- that we are looking at? That's first question. .

Okay. Derek, -- before I let Yim Ming answer that, I just want to emphasize again okay, which I had mentioned just now, I think it's not I don't think it's appropriate to look at these so-called capital recycling activities as a one-off because firstly, as I mentioned, it's going to be business as usual for us going forward. If I so aside from developing property and managing our office and retail. I mean if I invest well in something and I sell it 2 years later for a big profit, so that doesn't count towards my earnings. I mean -- as I said, CDL is also a good and astute investor. Yes, I mean, we've had some steps over the years, but generally, I think we've done well on our investment. So I think we really shouldn't keep seeing that as noncore. And likewise, on the flip side, right, I mean, if I invest in a commercial property in China, and it does really badly, and I take impairments and write-downs. That should be held against me. We should be held as a management team accountable for what we've done, right? If we keep stripping off all these one-offs, right, then then it will be very easy. I'll just focus on doing property development and everything else is noncore, right? So again, I would be careful about how we use that term. But I get where you're coming from. So maybe I'll let Yim Ming answer that.

So sorry. doesn't that like the question clearly Yes. By having said that, yes, .

So we reported about $330 million of PATMI. So if I were to exclude divestments as well as impairment losses, which have made substantially, it's probably in the range in -- so as we mentioned, from a management perspective, we don't look at that as a key performance measure. We really look at EBITDA and we look at reported PATMI and ROE. So I guess that probably contextualize us how we look at things as well. .

Yes, that's fair. I mean to your point as well, you are going to link dividend payouts to reported PATMI also. But I guess with you going forward, will you give -- and you alluded to more corporate governance as well. Would you I guess, formalizes the divestment targets in your outlook? .

Yes. So capital allocation as well as divestment targets are part of this internal strategic review that management and the Board will go -- is going through with this advisory firm. And so therefore, we are excited by midyear to hopefully announce something that will be well received by shareholders and investors. .

Okay. And just 1 last question if I may on -- we put the U.K. development -- U.K. legacy platform, $800 million. Mortlake step brewery is in there as well. So can you just take it that you are planning to divest entirely .

Short answer, yes, Derek, the intention is to divest that whole portfolio -- so we are working on it. I mean, some of that stuff, as I said, 1 has already divested the site for GBP 70 million [indiscernible] . So but we will accelerate the so-called the monetization of this portfolio. This year, certainly, we want to accelerate this faster. .

Okay. Let me just move to the second row, Shan, maybe you'll go first and then I'll move down. .

This is Shan from Goldman. Just a follow-up on dividends, right? -- the $0.25 as soon as ordinary. And is that absolute laon that you will keep going forward? Because that actually implies $220 million, which is above your core PATMI. So then -- the second question is then on divestment. Is that also your underwriting assumption that there will be a minimum level of divestment gain going forward?

Shan. So or in -- just for a second, like. It was about dividend, sorry. I was thinking about your second question. And then Saigon the first one. Okay. So the dividend -- the final dividend is $25 million, but added to the interim, it's 3, right? So it's $0.28 for the year. So a 40% payout ratio. And you are asking?

So most companies will keep the ordinary flat. That means that same model is .

I got a ton. I went through 1 of those moments when I was thinking about something else Yes. In the past, CDL had this habit, right, of declaring a lot of so-called special dividends, right? Our interim is special. There there's a special final and ordinary final I mean I think we discussed it at length at the board yesterday and management's recommendation is to probably do away with this terminology or special. I mean, it's really not that special. I mean we've committed to it now. our dividend policy, right, of a minimum of 35% or more. So I think anything within that range should not be considered special. It's something that we have committed to doing. So it's an ordinary dividend. Now if we were to do some means to be seen, it depends how unlike another developer who has made a Board announcement. I will not be pegging our dividend to the like growth divestment value or something. But again, our reported PATMI captures all that in, right? So I think that's a very fair metric to use when we have pegged our dividend policy to it. .

So -- and the second part was since I was still in twilight zone wine just now. Yes. So I've answered that as well, right?

So Yes. Okay. Okay. Sorry. My second question is on NAV and RMB -- if I compare this to number for against 2019 number, NAV has declined 9%, but RNAV is up, I think, about 9%. -- against 2019. Can you help us reconcile this number? What that has been developed up so significantly. And just 1 last question on net gearing, right? If I take a look at your net gearing is actually trending up. this goes against what you mentioned earlier about midterm deleveraging plans. So can you share what are the near-term goals over the next 12 months?

Okay. I'll take the gearing question, then I'll pass it to Yim Ming . So thank you, Sean. So for the gearing, as mentioned earlier, I mean, we were fortunate to have won more less sites than we expected. So 3 last year, and land is not exactly cheap in Singapore. But the good thing is that, I mean, all this gearing is on your balance sheet for a finite time, right, as you develop. I mean this gearing will start to progressively go down anyway. So we don't see that something alarming. And yes, I mean, that hotel acquisition at the end of last year, about SGD 480 million, I mean, that certainly pushed up our gearing by quite a bit around 3 percentage points. But -- but putting that aside, I mean, as you yourself mentioned, then, it is a midterm target. I know I did say that we want to get the gearing down. But ultimately, I also don't want us to be too fixed on the gearing because I think every property developer is different. Yes, they are Hong Kong property developers where gearing is in the teens or the 20s but different strokes for different folks, I suppose. And for us, I mean, our midterm target is to get the gearing down to at least around 60% -- but in the interim, right, I don't want to -- just because of gearing then, okay, let's not tender for land in Singapore. Let's not buy anything else. We'll just keep divesting I think that we'll do a great disservice to our growth strategy because no matter what, we still need to keep growing -- so -- but the gearing will come down over the next few years. That's certainly a commitment I've made -- but yes, it did actually track up. So I do understand the rationale for your question. So -- but yes, thankfully, not by a lot, and it will start to trickle down as we progress further with our capital recycling and continue to be selective about the acquisitions we make. Yim Ming, do you want to address the NAV?

You're really sharp. But the NAV for IP, I mean, if you notice, right, the NA for IP has gone out slightly, largely because of our China portfolio. So if you look at valuations wise, for our 2 China portfolios -- our China commercial properties, valuation has actually come in probably in the range of about at least 10% lower than the previous year. So they probably accounted for that. But overall, RNAV has gone up, I think, largely also because of South Beach. I mean, very frankly, that has improved our base NAV for one, and our hotels valuations actually came in also a little bit better this year versus last year. But if I can just add on the NAV, I know it's a key focus that many people look at whether this number is real. I just wanted to assure the audience that for these NAV calculations, firstly, for the IP portions, they are mostly externally valued. -- but we don't announce all the valuation reports because we're not a REIT. So they are either -- for the Singapore properties, they actually mostly external value all overseas properties are actually also excellently valued, and we use people like Cushman, et cetera. As for the hotels, after we privatize MC in 2019, we had the ability to value all the hotels. So while the hotel valuations are not the most recent, but in 2020, we did to clean about 90% of our hotel portfolio. So progressively, we just keep doing valuations. So suffice to say that I think the valuations number, we stand by it, basically supported by most external valuations. .

Congrats Joy from HSBC. Just following up on Sean's question on dividend. So given that the PATMI can be quite volatile depending on recognition and divestment -- how much would you want to keep your dividend more volatile? Or you want dividend to be a bit more stable? How should we think about the linkage to PATMI itself? Second question, just in terms of divestment targets. You singled out U.K. portfolio for potential divestment. Is there any other obvious segments that you want to sort of divest -- thank you

So on your first question, Joy. By the way, welcome. -- your first question, yes, I mean, we -- because the dividend policy is pegged to reported PATMI. So something that we will have the endeavor to try to keep it as stable as possible. Yes, last year, 2025 was a record year. So it's -- we're going to have to work very hard to try to keep the levels up. That's why I said, right? This capital recycling has part of our business as usual and it can't just be a one-off. And the good thing is that we have a sizable portfolio, and we continue to invest as well, right? As I said, the Osaka's 1 example, the hotel bespoke Shinsaibashi. I mean that was 2 years ago, and -- and now we have monetized that. So it's something that we will have to continue doing. And there are various levers we can pull to get this done. So yes, it's work in progress for us. You will see that at the end of my presentation that slide with all the nice bubbles around it, but 1 of them is recurring income, right? I mean it's also a key focus for us, and that's why the living sector has played a strong role too, albeit it's also a seed for fund management ambitions because property development is very lumpy, right, with the exception of Singapore, where it's progressive. And other than ECs, all of our overseas development revenue comes as a 1 shot at the end just like ECs, right? So this causes a lot of lumpiness in our earnings. And therefore, we do need a lot of strong recurring income to hold that up to -- and of course, we have to be careful how we invest because impairments and provisions for foreseeable losses can also take a hit on the PATMI, right? So Ultimately, it is a tough job for management. I mean, but we are committed to making this happen. And yes, in the medium term, we hope to really even out so that it's a stable and growing PATMI. .

So that's one. Then the second thing is in terms of divestments, you mentioned about you mentioned about -- I mean, we mentioned about the U.K. development legacy land bank. Of course, we also mentioned about the China commercial properties that we would hope to clear off our balance sheet. And aside from that, yes, there are many other divestments in the pipeline. We don't typically share our divestments, but I can only tell you that it's across geographies and across asset classes. And it would include Singapore as well. So yes, various initiatives that we're pushing forward with. Thank you, Joy. I'm glad I wasn't in the twilight zone for that question.

Okay. I'm going to -- I'm just going to move down quickly this row first and complete this row. Dairy, then after that, Brandon and other Terrane.

Derek from DBS. I've got 2 questions. So my first question is on the relationship with the board. -- as we look to focus on 2026, your strategies, divest invest, could we assume that relationship between management and board you are like Cannavinterms of wanting to take the company forward. So I just wanted to hear your thoughts on that. And second thing is on the land banking. We've been seeing how foreign developers coming in also in Singapore. And I think while the group has been tibiting very actively. I'm just wondering whether are you sensing exuberance in the pricing in the market currently? And if any, how should we think about you adding more land in 2026 Yes. That's all

Thanks, Derek. Went straight for the nail on the head, heading in the nail on the head with that first question. Yes, relationship is a very core deal and very harmonious right now amongst management and together with the Board, I do understand the basis of your question. Last year, we did have some internal issues and of course, some kind of unsightly public disputes, but glad to say that's behind us now. And as a management and Board, I mean, we are trying to really move forward expeditiously so that we can really unlock more value from CDL at a quicker pace. So that's one.

In terms of land banking, the truth is, Derek, I mean, over -- this is not the first time we are seeing -- I mean, over the years, there have been some exuberant years where you see a lot of foreign developers come into the market as well. There was I remember all these Chinese developers, [ Bank ] or they were all coming into our market to also build, right? And of course, many contractors have also now become developers themselves. So it's nothing different from what we've seen, I would say, over the last decade or 2. So we -- land tenders are always competitive, especially if it's a nice plot of land. You're never going to escape with a very low or attractive land price. I think it's always going to be competitive. So I think we have to be just disciplined in how we bid and put our best shot forward. Winning the Tanjong rule side does take some pressure off us because at least we've already got 1 land replenishment done. We will certainly take part in more land tenders this year. But of course, I also have mentioned before that I don't want us to get to the point where overly burdened by a very huge pipeline in Singapore. And should something change, be it locally, i.e., property measures, or for -- in terms of the global macroeconomic conditions, that may severely change the market dynamics and leave us so-called may leave us so-called struggling, I mean, with a larger burden than we would like. So I think we would like to just keep our land bank in prudent -- I mean we will replenish it in a prudent manner, but I think we'd like to keep it at sustainable levels that will not put undue pressure on the company. But certainly, we are glad to have on Tanjong rule, and we will continue to participate in more tenders this year.

Sorry, Sherman, since on that same topic, we have a question from Golar online. And on that same topic, she was asking about capital allocation. And therefore, since what you say that your capital allocation will largely be with the salable land banking? Or would it be other asset classes? .

Yes. Again, as the last few years, I have been the last 2 years, and it was accidental initially. But since 2024 and 2025, I've kind of given out divestment targets. You'll notice that annual divestment targets, you noticed I didn't do it today because, again, I'm waiting for -- I'd like to have this strategic review probably done, and then we'll give our proper targets then not just for divestments, but also for capital allocation for capital deployment.

Brandon?

Sherman and team. Just 3 questions. The first one, are you able to share a bit more on your hotel strategy as of now. I think we have sent you divesting a pretty decent Japan hotel very good premium then subsequently, you bought something very nice in London. So is there a particular strategy? Are you looking at probably like percentage you're going to sell a percentage of managed under maybe link in M&C and percentage you're looking to manage on the third party. Yes. That's my first question.

The second question will be a bit more on the U.K. development platform. So just to confirm, right, if you were to sell the entire $800 million, will it be recognized under revenue or you would recognize sort of a divestment gain or loss below the gross profit level, Yes. That's my second question.

And the third one would also be a bit on divestment -- so we have seen you divesting a very big number in FY '22 and '25 as well with MHS and South Beach. So for this year, are there any really chunky stuff there that we could see you divesting or maybe something like City Square more even like some decent hotels in U.K. or in New York -- why don't you take the

I'll do the easiest one, obviously, so for the U.K. development platform, we -- our original genesis of going in was actually for development sites. -- yes, it's part of our development property will be recorded under revenue, not under other income. .

I think on the hotel on the hotel one, we of course, we do have a review of that as well ongoing. And as you can see, it's not just noncore hotels that we're selling. Sometimes it's also getting the right offer. And if we think it's attractive enough, we do -- we are open to divesting right? So we do have 2 heads. One is a operator. And the other, of course, is the asset owner. So we do have a 2 head strategy. And I think as the operator, we ideally want to have more hotel contracts, especially in gateway city hotels. Today, we're pretty pleased with what we have in terms of where we are represented across different geographies which is very useful in terms of having such a volatility in the market, right? I mean 1 market is down usually and our market picks up this slightly as well. So we definitely want to continue that kind of diversification. But at the same time, I think where we're going is that it doesn't necessarily need to be an invested asset that we must hold ourselves. So on the operator side, I think we're also trying to get ourselves structured for more hotel management contracts and try to grow more through that route as well.

So if you ask me where we can split between the internal and external one? Today, I think, of course, it's majority internal. We have a few external contracts, but albeit those are quite significant ones. We have external contracts with Granier Type Singapore, Stregas and addition. So I'm not able to give you a firm split as to how much we intend to keep in-house and external. But basically every project we look at, we do decide like is it better managed in-house. And I mean some of the considerations can be how many hotels do we already have in that city, right? So we do take all that into account before we decide whether we want to go external internal morning.

Brandon, welcome. And thank you for your kind comments as well. So just to round up, -- as mentioned earlier, I mean, I don't want to share too much about -- I can't share too much about our divestments. And typically, we don't share specific divestment targets. It's interesting. You mentioned like City Square Mall and all this. So thank you for the ideas. But we are taking a very rigorous look and have been at our entire portfolio globally, including in Singapore. So I mean we hope that the ability to surprise on the upside. After all, I don't think any of you expected us to sell South Beach last year. So now that doesn't mean you go and say, "Oh, they're going to sell Republic Plaza or something. That's not going to happen okay? But we are looking -- taking a hard look at our whole portfolio. So as I mentioned, the divestments will spread across geographies, including Singapore as well as overseas. So -- let's see what we come up with. Yes, I mean South Beach is a hard act to beat because it was a big asset. I mean -- but we are thankful and fortunate to have a diverse portfolio. .

Okay, Wilson and then after I'll go to Terence and [indiscernible].

The management as Wilson from Jefferies. Just 2 questions. The first on fund management progress, which Sherman mentioned earlier that you hope to accelerate. So just could you share any early thoughts on considerations you have in building up the fund management platform and whether you be considering new platforms, existing public private? And the second question is back to the legacy U.K. development platform, the $800 million worth of carrying value sounds like there is being prioritized to recycle as quickly as you can? Or would you say it's fair to expect like within the next 12, 24 months, this will be totally fully recycled. Thank you.

Somehow, I guess, people really want us to commit to certain targets. And once -- and the reason I'm hesitant is because once I throw something out, right? I do want to walk back from that. But okay, to address your second question first, Wilson, first of all, U.K. development platform my aim is to monetize that all of it this year, but I will say it's not easy, I mean, but that's our aim. I mean -- so let's see if we can hit our own internal targets. For the fund management side, as I mentioned earlier, I mean, it's something wished we had paid a bit more attention to it and accelerated the efforts there. As you know, the last time we tried was to inject our U.K. properties and IPO in a REIT listed in Singapore. So -- that was a big colossal effort. And when that didn't go through, I mean, I think we kind of focused on other things. But really, it's now time to monetize more of our, for instance, our living sector portfolio of $3.7 billion that I put up earlier. I have to say that it will be mostly in private platforms, private formats. I don't think the capital markets are suitable for some of the assets that we have. And for the ones that we wanted to listen in the in a public format like the 3 commercial buildings in the U.K. are now still not the right time. So I think need a while more before the office sector and the capital markets come back in favor. So probably focusing more on the private side. But we do have a lot, I mean, that we are in a lot of discussions on some of our assets. And also, as I said, in addition to this, I mean, we thankfully do have 2 public platforms under fund management. So 1 is obviously CDL Hospitality Trust. And that we are also looking at how we can be a better sponsor to the -- and the other is, of course, Irene also listed on the exchange. I mean so these 2 REITs, I mean, we are also paying a lot closer attention to see how we can work better with the REITs. .

Okay. I'm mindful of time. So I just want to have to take 2 more here, and then I got to move over to the media group. So yes, maybe Terence, you kicked off. .

Is Terence from UBS. Just in the spirit of clarity, what is the time line for midterm defines for ROE and gearing? And relatedly on ROE, I think it's good that you're guiding for PATMI growth and the dividend policy is also welcome as well. But I think the equity denominator would still grow over time by a faster pace, making it harder to grow ROE. So then is it fair for us to expect a capital reduction exercise ensure you mentioned outsized dividend? And specifically also, is that likely is there a likely consideration to be in the same time frame as we think about the first question on ROE and net gearing. .

I have a last one, if I may. Residential, the margins on the consolidated projects look a bit low. -- think it's 4.7% versus 10% in the last year. The question is why? And perhaps a comment on the recognitions and margins outlook for 2026. Thank you.

So I'll address your question first, Terence. I again, because I want to wait until the proper juncture. So when our internal strategic review is completed before I really give you a time frame. But I think you would have heard me in previous and things I have thrown out ROE target, a midterm ROE target of 8%, okay? It's not easy for us to get there, as you mentioned, right, the shareholder equity component is very big. So -- but therefore, it's something that we will really need to drive our fund management at a faster pace if we aim to get there, right? I mean -- so that's 1 way of really lifting our ROE. So we do need to be more efficient -- and we -- I can't comment on like capital reduction on that at the moment, margins. You want to talk about it, Yim Ming?

Yes. Actually, for the margins, if you exclude the foreseeable losses that we made for China properties, I need to give credit, our residential margins actually improved between the 2 years. So when they calculate the 4%, I believe that has been factored in the foreseeable losses. And that's actually the main reason. So I think in terms of margins, very healthy, I would say, yes. Okay. Thank you. .

Vijay, the last time I'm going to move over to the media team. .

Vijay here from RHB. Maybe just 2 quick questions. Firstly, on Delphi Archer, there was a plan to unlock value for our strategic developments. Maybe any update on that? And my second question is in terms of Singapore residential land banking, I see you are a bit more active in terms of EC sites. Maybe can you give a bit of idea? Is it a derisking strategy and risk versus returns on EC versus private site, some color on that. Thank you. Did you

Sorry Vijay, did you say unlock strategic divestments?

No. Delphi Orchard, there was a...

Delfi Orchard I see Yes, Delphi Orchard into. .

So thank you -- so in terms of your question, the first 1 about value. That is 1 way as well is by really doing so-called our portfolio optimization. So that's the enhancement part, right, of our GET strategy. And it's really looking at our existing assets and seeing how we could really enhance and unlock the value there. So we are doing 2 redevelopments at the moment. One is, as I mentioned earlier, Newport resident -- Newport Plaza, which is the entire complex that used the Fuji Rock stars, the other is Union Square. So we will continue to drive forward with this. But at the same time, you also have to understand that I've got to keep our gearing and our cash in mind. I started all the redevelopment projects at the same time, so there's also like we could redevelop City house, we could apply for a CBD incentive scheme of 25% bonus GFA and redevelop that. We can also, as you have mentioned, we unblock Delphi. I mean -- and it wasn't a lot of money because we owned a substantial part of it. But if we amalgamated that with Claymore Connect behind Orchard Hotel, that would also become a very sizable mixed-use development. And we have already gone some steps along the SDI, the strategic development incentive scheme. But I do not want to start these projects anytime soon because they now have 4 ongoing re-development projects, right? Already the existing 2 will finish in 2028 and 2029. And then top up another tool, and I will have loss of income as well when I demolish those buildings, it will put a huge strain on the group. So I think there's something we need to pace out and I cannot do it all at once. So that's one. Sing resi, you asked about EC. Yes, EC has certainly been the flavor of the day for the last, I would say, 24 months, all developers have gone very aggressive for EC. I think because EC has always been a very attractive product that allows upgraders to eventually get into the private residential market when the EC finishes it's minimal occupation period, right, so it becomes fully private. So great and then the income ceiling was formally lifted, as you know, from 14,000 to 16,000 and there's been talk about potentially lifting it further. So ECs have really been a very attractive way for upgraders to enter the private market and and it's been in high demand, which hence has driven very aggressive bidding in the last 2 years now. So we have -- we do participate in EC sites as well, and we have been fortunate to win EC sites along the way, including 2 last year. But that doesn't mean that's all we look at. I mean as I said, Tanjong rum, I mean, it was a nice win for us, and that's near Kaland all that. I mean it's a great area to be in. So that's not easy. So I think we will continue to look at sites that are well located and that have locational attributes that we feel will be very attractive to buyers. .

Okay. I'm going to quickly move over to the other side of the room. I see Dexter. Dexter why dont you take the question from the meeting?

Dex from Limburg news. 2 parts. First part this question on the U.K. and China. I know you took markdown there as well. Can I clarify if you guys are playing by opto sell both the U.K. and China assets, how much discounting are you expecting if you all really want to sell? Because as you mentioned, the capital markets in very soft in those 2 parts. The second one, you mentioned before you wanted to U.K. REIT, and I think you mentioned that just now as well. So is the plan on the shelf for now? And -- in terms of private funds, are you talking about setting out a private fund within CEO? And the third one, in terms of strategic of your core businesses,

Firstly, in terms of our divestment I mean, we will go through meticulously right into our portfolio, especially for our noncore and underperforming assets. across all asset classes, right? I mean, be it residential, commercial or hospitality, and we will divest assets that make sense. You all remember in 2024, I think we divested a hotel in broader Colorado, right? I was not even Denver is broader and people -- I'm not sure how many people hotel and border. And then we divested for about and at a gain of about SGD 80 million, right? So -- so it's things like that, right? I mean we look at it fairly. And in some cases, we try to always divest above, obviously, our book value, okay? -- but it may not always be possible. So the flip side is looking at if you keep holding on to the asset, right, how much are you emerging in terms of the cash? I mean, is it loss making? How much debt is on the asset the U.K. development portfolio that the legacy portfolio are put up. I mean that was -- before we sold ransom sales was around SGD 1 billion at the height of the interest rate environment in the U.K. I mean, we're paying 6% interest a year on that whole portfolio -- so that's a lot of waste of money. That's $60 million a year. So I think we ransoms, we divested and evincis going to probably punch me once I say this, but that was at a slight loss. It was about GBP 10 million, I think. So -- but you know what, I mean, you take the good and the bad, right? I'm removing quite a bit of debt off my balance sheet as well. So as we go forward, we assess each asset on the individual basis. Same with China right now is really bad time. You've seen other developers that have exposed to China as well. If you -- I mean, we are still confident in our residential sites, especially our Sinn, right? -- that should do very, very well, exceptionally well. But yes, commercial is uninvestable right now in China. So is going to be challenging for us to divest these. We may have to take some haircuts on it. But the head count is too big. I mean, the good thing about our group is that we do have some holding power as well. I mean, as I've always said to you all before, I don't want to divest just for the sake of meeting divestment targets that are committed to, right, and leaving lots of money on the table. I mean, that is a poorer outcome for CDL if I do that. .

Secondly, on private funds, you're asking whether the funds would be within CDL? Well, when I say private funds, I'm referring to starting a private equity fund that would third-party capital. CDL may be part of that capital stack, maybe an investor as well, an LP in the fund, but it would be a small one. I mean, we would not exceed like 10% or 20% of the fund. I mean we may have to put our money where our office, right, if we're going to start a fund. But it will be largely external funds that we would hope to attract because that's true monetization of assets, right? If I sell the asset in the fund, and I'm 80% of the fund, then what am I doing, right? So that is my intention for the fund management side, private funds.

Strategic view does it include management? Thank you for trying to work me out of a job. I appreciate that Dexter. So -- but I hope it doesn't include management. I mean, if it does, then I'll accept whatever conclusions it comes to, but it does not include reviewing the Board or management. I mean, this is really focused on our strategy. focused on our guidance, focus on our portfolio and asset base. I mean -- so things that really matter the CDL. Yes, I understand Board and management, important to CD as well. But that is up to the shareholders to decide. So.

Quickly to around 2 things then. Obviously, you said last year was a year of reflection. Looking at the U.K. portfolio, what do you think went wrong there in the first place? And secondly, can I ask since the Chairman does have strategic -- edition for the company. What do you think of the review? And do you have a vision of what the strategy would look like. .

Sorry, on your first question, you asked me what went wrong, where --

The U.K.

The U.K. portfolio, high interest rates...

The U.K. portfolio as in the legacy land bank. So I think back then, I mean, it was before my time as well. So it's understandable that that we wanted to get into U.K. developed market, but we had to get an external manager because we did have a team on the ground. So I understand. I think some of the things that went wrong some of the sites were potentially at above market values. So as you know, it always starts with getting a good land price, right? If your land price is wrong, it's quite difficult to catch up subsequently. It's quite challenging to catch up. And so that's 1 of them. And secondly, I think some of them the development manager underestimated the complexity of development permits as well, which is why the whole process has been so lengthy and drawn up -- so I would say those are some of the lessons learned as well for CDL as well. So going forward, obviously, now we have our own U.K. development team. So if we do undertake developments at least, we have our own team on top of it, although team is not involved in that because that 1 is exclusively under the development of a third-party manager. So again, it's things like that we work towards resolving and unlocking the value there or at least unlocking the capital there. so that we can put it to a better use. I as I said, again, I mean I can pass the mic to our esteemed Chairman to answer, but I really don't think it's necessary because at this stage, not of us can comment much on the strategic review, right? In fact, I probably already said more than actually I said today. So if you want to ask him what does he think of the process that he like it or not like it. I mean I don't know how he's going to answer that considering we are not supposed to comment on it because it's going to be a very comprehensive review. But as I've answered your question earlier, suffice to see, right? I mean Board and management are not under the review. So let us know if you like us to be under the review as well. I'll put that out for consideration. If you don't think we're doing a good job. So

Okay, moving quite a long because I know that some of you have to go to the RADARS launch in a short while. So let me just move down to anybody in the friends from the media that is over on this side. If there's any questions pertaining to that? No. Then I had 1 also from Golar from the Edge online, which has to do with City Plaza. I'm not sure if Mr. Sherman will want to comment like like what are the chances of that? And active sales mandate, what is the expected proceeds from the Board denials if it does happen. .

Actually, it's attractive side. I think the -- we are very sparse shareholder in the complex. So they managed to get 80% is some ground. I believe there will be some interest from the potential investors, and I wish him for luck. Thank you. .

So just to clarify, we do have about 16 units on -- is there no there is a funding question. Okay. I'll just give this to the last 1 on the .

Yes. This -- can you give us a hint of what's the current value for U.K. office portfolio at this point in time? The reason why I ask is, if you add up the $800 million the U.K. land bank, Moxi to be sold to CDL HT $475 million. Your PRS, $3.7 billion. That's a relo to $5 billion. So can we say we have in excess of $5 billion to be sold over the next 3 to 5 years. .

Very, very astute and very good, Martin. As I said, again, we won't comment on the targets. Anor, we confirm what you just mentioned, but you're certainly very steel analyst.evening. .

So carrying value of the 3 properties that we have right now is about GBP 870 million. .

So it's GBP 870 million. So that's approaching EUR 6 billion. .

Okay. I'm going to scan the room for more time. Is there any more funding questions on the room, the floor. If there's not, then is there any other comments from the panelists at this -- he will bring this briefing to a close. So thank you very much, everyone, for coming. There's also refreshments being served outside. And for those that are joining us on webcast, thank you very much for taking your time this morning, and we hope to see all of you soon, very soon again. Thank you very much, and have a good year ahead. .