Hotel Properties Limited, whose managing director Ong Beng Seng is involved in a corruption probe, has reported a loss of $17.2 million for its 1HFY2023, reversing from earnings $1.9 million in the year earlier.
Revenue in the same period was up 27.9% y-o-y to $319 million, as its hotels see better performance with the resumption of travel.
However, the company's bottomline was weighed down by a loss of more than $16 million for its associates and joint ventures, which HPL says suffered from higher borrowing costs.
As at June 30, HPL has an NAV of $3.10, which, rare for a property company, is only slightly lower than its market price which was at $3.65 on Aug 11. Most other developers trade at a big discount.
HPL says that barring unforeseen circumstances, the operating performance of its hotels and resorts are expected to continue to improve for the rest of the year, with the second half being traditionally the stronger season for hospitality industry in general.
"The group, however, is mindful of the continuing challenges such as inflationary cost pressures and rising interest rates," says HPL.
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Both Ong (picture), and transport minister S Iswaran have been arrested by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau.
