CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT To that end, we remain committed to building on our of the few residential sites on Hong Kong Island to be investment in Taikoo Place. While the current phase of included in the HKSAR Government’s land sale the HK$15 billion Taikoo Place redevelopment is at its programme this year. final stage, the acquisition of the Zung Fu Industrial Building and the submission of compulsory sale In South East Asia, we broke ground on our Savyavasa applications for a number of buildings in Quarry Bay development in Jakarta earlier this year. We are also have put us in a favourable position to continue our making good progress on our two minority investments, placemaking strategy and to strengthen Taikoo Place’s The River and Empire City, in Ho Chi Minh City. With position as a global business district. HK$20 billion allocated for strategic investments, including residential trading, we remain opportunistic Our office portfolio in Hong Kong continues to and keen to leverage our premium residential brand in demonstrate its resilience. In accordance with our Hong Kong and South East Asia. We are looking to build masterplan for Pacific Place, we intend to expand the a presence in four core cities in South East Asia – portfolio over the next few years, leveraging Admiralty’s Singapore, Bangkok, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City, all growing connectivity and importance as a major of which feature a middle-class looking for higher-end transportation hub. We are making good progress on our residential properties. We have teams on the ground new Grade A office tower opposite Three Pacific Place, who are looking for the right partners and prime sites and will add approximately 218,000 square feet of for future investment and development. additional office space to our wider Pacific Place portfolio. Whilst our hotel business is still being adversely affected by COVID-19, we are making good progress on the Whilst there was a recovery in the Hong Kong’s retail expansion of our hotel management business within market in late 2021, this was halted by the fifth COVID-19 non-owned developments in new cities. We have plans wave in January 2022. However, we continued to for two new, third party owned hotels under The House maintain almost full occupancy in our malls, and the Collective brand in Shenzhen and Tokyo. market has been showing signs of recovery, boosted by the HKSAR Government’s consumption voucher scheme and the release of pent-up local demand. We will Future Growth in the continue to invest in our malls and launch innovative Chinese Mainland initiatives to keep up the positive momentum. The residential market in Hong Kong has remained The first six months of 2022 have been challenging for stable, with resilient demand. Our latest project, EIGHT some of our developments in the Chinese Mainland, STAR STREET, has been achieving satisfactory pre-sales, amidst tightened restrictions due to the resurgence of and we have embarked on an ambitious pipeline of new COVID-19. Despite this, we recorded an increase in rental developments to be completed over the next four years. income for the first half of 2022, reflecting contributions We were also pleased to win the tender for a residential from the newly opened Taikoo Li Sanlitun West and site at 269 Queen’s Road East in Wan Chai recently, one Taikoo Li Qiantan, as well as strong local demand and retail sales earlier in the year. 10 Swire Properties Limited Interim Report 2022