ESR Group has reported adjusted revenue of US$432 million ($600 million) for 1HFY2022, up 9.4% from the pro-forma 1HFY2021 revenue of US$395 million.
Total ebitda increased by 15.3% from US$577 million in 1HFY2021 to US$665 million in 1HFY2022.
Patmi and core patmi grew 16.8% and 27.3% respectively to US$412 million and US$389 million for 1HFY2022. This is attributed to strong recurring income from the growth in the company’s co-investments in funds, associates, and joint ventures.
Given the weakening of local currencies across Asia Pacific in relation to the US dollar in 1H2022, the company says the total patmi would have increased by 23% from US$353 million in 1H2021 to US$434 million in 1H2022 on a like-for-like basis based on foreign exchange as at Dec 31, 2021.
Following the successful accretive acquisition of ARA Asset Management, EPS growth was 31.8% despite the enlarged share base.
“Our successful acquisition of ARA earlier this year has further expanded our fee base and our new economy business with the addition of LOGOS has never been stronger,” says ESR chairman Jeffrey Perlman.
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“With an evolving market environment, we also wanted to take advantage of opportunities to lock in gains and actively recycle capital. I am pleased to report that we achieved a record US$1.4 billion of divestments from our balance sheet (returning over US$1 billion of cash to the group), which helped to lock in and crystallise development gains mainly from China.”
He adds that the company has US$17.9 billion undrawn capital from its funds to deploy, benefitting from the addition of ARA’s recurring and stable fee revenue.
ESR has declared an inaugural interim dividend of 12.5 HK cents (implying a 1.3% yield) for the financial year ending Dec 31, amounting to US$70 million payable to shareholders on Sept 30.
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ESR has over 38 million sqm of gross floor area in operation and under development across its portfolio and a sizable landbank of over 4.4 million sqm for future development, as at June 30.
For 1H2022, the company achieved US$3.5 billion worth of development starts, as well as US$2 billion in completions.
Given the record low vacancy rates across the portfolio, ESR substantially increased its development starts by 109% y-o-y which was further complemented by development completions which increased by 51% y-o-y.
On the back of that continued progress, ESR has US$12 billion in development work-in-progress, the largest development workbook in Asia Pacific.
Shares in ESR closed 88 HK cents higher or 4.6% up on Aug 25 at HK$20.
