Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited

Good morning and welcome to the Jardine Matheson 2021 Full Year Results webcast. You should be able to see the slide deck on your screen at the same time as we speak, and you can download it if you wish. We'll leave plenty of time at the end of the presentation for questions and answers. If you would like to ask a question, please press the submit question button on your screen at any time. This morning, Graham and I will cover the 2021 business highlights, how the company creates value for the group, our financial performance for the past year, and outlook for 2022. I'll turn to an overview of the year in a moment, but let me start with the key financial headlines which we reported for 2021. In summary, we continue to see disruption, operating challenges, and rapid change in many of our markets, but there was also an encouraging recovery in most of our businesses. Total revenue was $36 billion, an increase of 10% over last year, but 12% below the group's revenue in 2019, which is a more representative year than 2020, when our results were significantly depressed by the impact of the pandemic. The group's underlying net profit for the year increased by 39% to $1.5 billion, but was 5% below the 2019 level. Underlying earnings per share were 64% above the prior year. More importantly, they were 10% higher than the record level we achieved in 2018. The Board has declared a final dividend of $1.56 per share, 22% higher than last year, reflecting confidence in the future and the benefits of the buyout of the Jardine Strategic Minority last year. The total dividend for the year will be $2, 16% higher than last year's $1.72. Looking at the split in our earnings by geography, in 2021, 55% of the group's underlying profit came from China, 42% came from Southeast Asia, and 3% from other markets. This is more in line with previous years, after Southeast Asia was disproportionately impacted by the pandemic in 2020. Looking at an overview of last year, 2021 was another difficult year and our colleagues continue to deal with the challenges presented by the global pandemic. I want to thank each of them for their dedication and hard work. COVID-19 and its economic consequences have had a devastating effect in all our markets, and we have intensified our focus in the past year on supporting our communities, our customers, and our colleagues. Colleagues across our businesses continue to be hit by COVID-19 and the major focus of our efforts has been to protect them and ensure their well-being. We've encouraged calling vaccinations and flexible working practices and made health and safety a top priority. We've also given colleagues support and resources to address mental health issues. Our businesses have also been supporting their partners and the communities in which they operate through extensive corporate social responsibility activity to help them beat the challenges of the pandemic. I'd like to highlight a few significant developments which took place across the group during the year. In April 2021, we completed the simplification of the group's parent company structure by acquiring the remaining 15% of the shares in Jordan Strategic. As we said when we announced the transaction last March, this was a natural step in the evolution of the group and creates value for shareholders. It has delivered a range of benefits, including a material enhancement to earnings, a conventional ownership structure for the group, and greater financial and operational flexibility. Jardine's continues to focus on two of the fastest growing consumer markets in the world, China and Southeast Asia. Our focus on building our presence and relationships in the Chinese mainland was exemplified last year by the sale to John Cheng of our Zhongfu China business. The transaction has consolidated Jardine's position as the second largest shareholder in John Cheng after the founders. thereby strengthening the group's relationship with them and the business further. We continue to see Southeast Asia as a source of significant future growth. Our businesses there showed great resilience in the year despite ongoing challenging conditions and there have been promising signs of recovery in most of our markets. Our businesses in the region also continue to look for growth opportunities. Astra continued its move into new areas of strategic focus with its investment in Halodoc, a healthcare-based technology platform, and its establishment through Astraland Indonesia, its 50-50 venture with Hong Kong Land, of a joint venture with Logos to develop and manage modern logistic warehouses in Indonesia. I'll now talk through about the progress that the group has made in the past year against its strategic priorities. In doing that, I thought it would be helpful to provide you with an explanation of how Jardines creates value across its group companies. We are a large diversified group with deep roots across the region and we have been partnering with founders and management for 190 years to build and grow successful companies that serve millions of people every day. Key to the success has been Jardine's approach to business and how we create value both at a group level and for our investee companies. Throughout its long history, Jardine's has successfully grown its businesses by following a series of core investment principles. We've always invested in the sectors where we see growth, in companies we trust. and with people in whom we believe. We've always focused on evolving our portfolio to reflect changes in the environment in which we operate and the needs of customers and have invested in new sectors and businesses or divested core businesses and exited sectors wherever it has been appropriate. Our stewardship of the group and its businesses creates value through a number of characteristics. which set us apart from other businesses. I'll briefly look at each of these in turn. Starting with a long-term strategic approach, we are a family-controlled business which takes a long view on Asia's development, seeing past short terms of periods of volatility. Some of our biggest businesses, Hong Kong Land, Dairy Farm, now known as DFI Retail Group, and Jardine Cycling Carriage, have been operating successfully for well over a century. You apply a long-term approach to managing a diversified portfolio of businesses which generate strong and stable cash flow regardless of cycles while building long-term value for the portfolio as a whole. This is illustrated by the 15% compound annual growth rate or CAGR in operating cash flows which we have achieved in the last 16 years a period which has encompassed the significant disruption of the global financial crisis in 2007 and 2008, the social unrest in Hong Kong in 2019, and the past two years of the pandemic. Also fundamental to our approach is our track record of building enduring partnerships, collaborating with founders and management to achieve mutual and shared success. This is exemplified by our relationship with Astra, which has seen this leading Indonesian conglomerate go from strength to strength over the last 21 years since we first took a stake in the business. We have also, over many decades, become the trusted business partner in Asia for leading global brands such as Daimler, Schindler and IKEA, as well as local champions such as Maxime's. We currently have over 90 important partnerships across the region. As a family business, we are uniquely placed to bring continuity and consistency to these relationships from one generation to the next, which gives our partners significant comfort and value. The group's unparalleled regional network and connections creates a real advantage. as we leverage our deep-rooted local knowledge and relationships to work with our group companies to evolve their businesses and position them well for future growth. We've continued to focus on these relationships even when the pandemic have made the practicalities of doing so more difficult. In this context, last autumn, our executive chair, Ben Keswick, traveled to the Chinese mainland and spent nearly two months visiting our businesses there, and meeting with a wide range of business partners and senior government representatives. In general, our directors and management prioritize the maintenance of strong relationships with key stakeholders wherever we operate, and our businesses benefit from these close links. Our country chairs are a key part of how we build and maintain our networks. For example, Alec Kenney, our representative in Vietnam, is an active board member of our investee companies there, including REE and Vena Milk. Another key characteristic is our financial strength. We take a disciplined, long-term approach to capital allocation to maximize financial and strategic value. Our approach is underpinned by always maintaining a strong balance sheet and liquidity position for both the company and its subsidiaries. This position has enabled the group to move with confidence in making some of our most substantial acquisitions over the past years at times of significant market dislocation. Lastly, as an engaged owner and operator, we build and develop best-in-class businesses to generate sustained value over time. We do so with active group leadership, support and governance, working closely with the boards and senior management of each of our businesses who are responsible for implementing strategy and driving performance and growth. As the pace of change in each of our markets accelerates, we need to drive forward our strategic priorities across group companies with conviction and a heightened sense of urgency. The first of these priorities is to evolve the group's portfolio, develop them from our founding in 1832 into the group we are today, done so by aligning ourselves with customers and staying relevant to the needs of Asian consumers with a focus on the growing middle class and urbanization in our key markets. We invest in new strategic partnerships where we see long-term growth opportunities aligned to our values and priorities. We've established a reputation as a partner of choice for high growth Asian businesses working with a broad range of partners. As well as evolving our businesses in traditional sectors, we are expanding our footprint into the new economy through ventures in new areas which align with and address the increasing use of digital technology by customers. In the past year after completing the acquisition of the Jardine Strategic Minorities, We prioritized debt reduction ahead of further material new investments, but we've continued to look for compelling smaller strategic opportunities even so. These included the acquisition by JEC of the Hong Kong and Macau business of MGI Group, a specialty healthcare engineering solutions provider, and our investment in pickup, a leading smart logistics and delivery business. In the coming years, we will continue to build on the progress we have made so far to develop more new partnerships in the digital space. Entrepreneurial flair and a deep understanding of how Asia is evolving have always been at the heart of our culture and our success. And we're actively using these skills to identify new opportunities for the group to invest alongside our partners in these new areas of growth. Last March, we announced a strategic cooperation with Hillhouse Capital. The partnership is progressing well and is already resulting in the discussion of a number of co-investment opportunities. Another key area of focus is on driving innovation and operational excellence in our businesses. We operate in highly dynamic markets and need to constantly innovate and pivot our businesses to remain relevant and to achieve sustained success. In this context, our businesses have accelerated the pace at which they embrace digital ways of working to improve operations. Hactyl's increasing adoption of robotics at its cargo terminal, Gammon's use of digital twins in its construction business, and DFI Retail's building of modern warehouse and delivery capabilities are all examples of how our businesses are navigating the challenges posed by the pandemic and preparing for future growth. On the B2C front, our businesses are embedding digital in how we anticipate and serve customer needs, developing omni-channel experiences, building data capabilities, and embracing startups to enable us to react with agility in the changing marketplaces. A good example of this is DFI's retail platform, You, with almost 4 million members, which has gone from strength to strength this year and is helping us move beyond a transactional focus to drive new ways of meeting and anticipating individual customer needs and preferences. Our B2B businesses have also embraced digital as a mechanism to anticipate and exceed customer expectations. Gammon now boasts one of the largest virtual design and construction teams in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Our future success will depend on our ability to attract, develop, and retain leadership talent across our businesses. As a group, we strive to develop leaders with an ownership mindset who take an entrepreneurial approach to developing their businesses. This has helped Jardines to capitalize on new business opportunities. We continue to enhance our performance management structures to recognize, reward, and retain such talents. As the group increasingly embraces digital ways of working, invest in new economy businesses, we're focused on recruiting and developing digital talent across our group companies. In the past year, our group companies have made a series of key appointments to strengthen their leadership and help drive future growth. We continue to demonstrate our commitment to developing our leaders and providing them with opportunities to progress their careers within a range of different businesses across the group with over a dozen executive-level senior management moves taking place in the period across the businesses. These intergroup moves are an integral part of Jardine's culture with many of our senior colleagues having worked across a number of our businesses, gaining great breadth of experience. We also see the strength in our boards as crucial, both to enhancing our governance and creating future value. And we have made a number of changes in the year to add to the external industry expertise of the boards of DFI Retail, board of Mandarin Oriental, and the board of Hong Kong Land. The pandemic has led to a tightened talent market and growing salary inflation. And while we are better placed to attract talent than smaller organizations, we have made addressing this challenge a priority of the group. Our fourth key strategic pillar is sustainability. As a group, we see sustainability as essential to creating long-term value and we are committed to integrating it into the strategy and business models of our portfolio companies. Each of our businesses is developing an approach to sustainability which is aligned with our group priorities of leading climate change, driving responsible consumption, and promoting social inclusion. Each business's approach is tailored to their own business sector and market, as well as the interests of their stakeholders. As a group, we are working closely with each business to provide support, guidance, and resources. I'm pleased to report that we will be publishing our inaugural Group Sustainability Report in the next couple of months. Here, let me pause and pass you to Graham, who will take us through a closer look at our results. Over to you, Graham.

Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. I'll focus as usual on underlying profit attributable to shareholders, which the group uses as its key earnings performance measure. The group's underlying profit in the period was $1.5 billion, 39% above 2020. Underlying profit excludes non-trading items as defined in the group's accounts, and is intended to provide a clearer understanding of the ongoing business performance of the group. Below underlying profit, we booked a net non-trading gain of $368 million in the year, compared to a net loss of $1.5 billion in 2020. Accordingly, overall profit attributable to shareholders for the year was $1.9 billion, compared with a net loss of $394 million in 2020. Returning to underlying earnings, within overall reported growth of 39% for the year, 29 percentage points reflect recovery in the operating performance of our businesses, while 10 percentage points resulted from acquisition of the minority shareholdings in Jardine Strategic in April 2021. As John noted, underlying profits remained 5% below pre-pandemic levels in 2019. However, the 29% recovery driven by business performance was encouraging, especially as we saw substantially lower levels of employment and other pandemic-related support from governments. In 2021, the group's results reflect a net $58 million of pandemic-related support across our markets, compared to $282 million in 2020. Underlying earnings per share was 64% higher at $4.83. The impact of the Jardine strategic acquisition accounted for approximately half of this growth, reflecting both the enhancement to earnings and a reduction in effective share count. The cancellation of Jardine Strategics cross-shareholding in Jardine Matheson, which will complete the second stage of the group simplification, is expected in the second half of May this year, following the annual general meeting. Looking at the non-trading items during the period, The largest are gains on the transfer of the Zhengfu China business to Zhongsheng and the sale and leaseback of Zhengfu Hong Kong's principal operating properties. Offset by an unrealized loss on our regular revaluation of Hong Kong lands investment properties portfolio. I'll now turn to the individual operating businesses in a little more detail. This slide shows underlying profit contribution across the group's main businesses compared to both 2019 and 2020. Their progress, reflecting both the pandemic and broader changes in their specific markets, has differed significantly. Hong Kong Land, Astra, Jardine Motors and JSC&C all returned underlying profits in 2021 above the level seen in 2019. While that, of course, reflects in part the impact of acquisition of the Jardine strategic minorities, it also reflects the resilience of those businesses and markets. Jardine Pacific has also remained stable across the period. Our hotel business, Mandarin Oriental, saw the deepest impact from pandemic travel restrictions, but while still incurring losses in 2021, also saw strong recovery from 2020. DFI's weaker results last year principally reflect its share of a substantial loss incurred at Yonge Way, as well as lower pandemic-related government support. Beneath these major impacts, good progress is being made by DFI's ongoing transformation programme. Recovery toward pre-pandemic underlying profits will depend to an extent, however, on the timing of Hong Kong's border reopening with the mainland, in particular in the health and beauty business. Higher group corporate costs were principally higher financing costs as a result of acquisition of the Jardine Strategic Minorities. focusing now on each of the individual businesses in turn. Jardine Pacific's underlying net profit was slightly lower than 2020, a resilient and cash-generative performance in current market conditions, reflecting its diversified business portfolio and underlying recovery to offset the significantly lower level of pandemic support from governments in 2021. Looking at individual businesses, Hacktel and Gammon both performed strongly, while Jardine Schindler, JEC, and our restaurant businesses saw a slight decline. There was an extensive focus across the businesses in the year on driving operational improvements. The benefits are now starting to be seen, and Jardine Pacific is well placed for future growth. Following the sale of our Zhongfu China business to Zhongsheng during the year, we have moved Zhongfu Hong Kong and Macau under Jardine Pacific, and it was reported as part of that group from October last year. Jardine Motors saw its underlying net profit for the year increase significantly, with a higher contribution from our 21% investment in Zhongsheng remembering, of course, that this result relates to Zhongsheng's performance for the second half of 2020 and the first half of 2021. Zhongsheng saw strong performance from its used car business while it begins to develop its EV-related franchise. Its acquisition of the Zhongfu China business also significantly strengthened its market position in its Mercedes-Benz business. Jardine Motors' reported China contribution in 2021 also includes nine months of earnings from the Zengfu China business prior to completion of its sale to Zhongsheng in October. There was also a substantial turnaround performance in our United Kingdom business, Jardine Motors Group, which saw increased volumes and margins in all operations and achieved cost efficiencies. Zeng Fu in Hong Kong saw better performance in the first nine months of 2021. Delivery of cars, however, remains impacted by a shortage of semiconductors and supply chain issues. Turning now to Hong Kong Land, which delivered a resilient performance in 2021, despite the continued impact of the pandemic and related restrictions. In the group's investment properties business, The central office portfolio in Hong Kong continued to perform well and rents declined to a lesser extent than the broader market. Vacancy of 5.2% and average office rents of HK$117 per square foot were both lower at the end of 2021 than at the end of the prior year. The central retail portfolio remained effectively fully occupied and saw improved tenant sales due to a modest recovery in consumer sentiment and an increase in average retail rents to $190 per square foot from $164 per square foot in 2020, primarily due to a reduction in temporary rent relief. In Singapore, positive rental reversions continued with average office rents increasing and vacancy remaining low. In Beijing, trading performance at Wangfu Central continued to benefit from the strength of luxury retail sentiment on the Chinese mainland. In Shanghai, construction is proceeding on schedule at the prime West Bund development, which is expected to complete in phases between 2023 and 2027. The value of the Hong Kong investment properties portfolio decreased by 5% compared to the prior year, due to lower rents with no change in capitalization rates. Turning to Hong Kong Land's development properties business, The profit contribution from China increased compared to the prior year, due to more residential sale completions. Market sentiment weakened in the second half of the year amid tightened credit conditions, but contracted sales performance at the Group's projects remained satisfactory, and the market conditions in the Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities in which we operate remain solid. Singapore profits were in line with the prior year. cooling measures were introduced in late 2021 after a strong recovery in the residential market but it's too early to assess their likely impact in the rest of Southeast Asia there were moderate improvements in market sentiment and a gradual recovery in construction activities as borders across the region reopened good progress continued to be made in replenishing the group's land bank and it now has nine new projects under development on the Chinese mainland as well as three in Singapore. 2021 was another challenging year for DFI Retail as the pandemic continued to impact operations, store traffic and consumer behaviours. These external factors, combined with the group's share of a significant loss incurred by key associate Yong Kuei, materially affected the group's results, with underlying profits 62% lower. The grocery retail business saw weaker performance compared to 2020 due to reduced sales and lower levels of pandemic-related employment support from governments. But there was a strong improvement in underlying profitability caused by the execution of the business improvement programmes, increased own brand penetration and progress in driving customer loyalty in Hong Kong. There were improved performances in Indonesia and Singapore following the reshaping of the offerings in both markets. Home furnishings saw its profits impacted by the pandemic and global supply chain restrictions. In health and beauty, the absence of tourist traffic due to the ongoing closure of the border with the Chinese mainland continued to significantly impact Manning's performance in Hong Kong, which was also affected by reduced levels of government support compared to the prior year. Guardian performance in Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia was lower due to pandemic restrictions. The performance of the convenience stores business was broadly flat compared with the prior year. and well below 2019. Performance improved during the year in Hong Kong and Macau, while profits in Singapore and the Chinese mainland were impacted by COVID restrictions. DFI Retail Associate Max Eames saw its contribution increase significantly as restaurant patronage recovered, particularly in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. Moving to the group's luxury hotel business, Mandarin Oriental saw a significant improvement in its performance in 2021 as restrictions on travel were gradually relaxed in most countries, behind pre-COVID levels. Results for most of the group's owned hotels improved, driven by better trading conditions and continued government support in some countries. The results of the management business improved substantially, with particularly strong performance in resort destinations such as Bodrum in Turkey and in Dubai. Trading conditions remain challenging and the group's performance will not fully recover until travel restrictions are relaxed. An underlying loss is expected to be reported in the first half of 2022. The group's pipeline of new properties, however, remains strong with 24 projects in the pipeline to open in the next five years. Turning now to the group's other business interests in Southeast Asia, Jardine Cycle & Carriages' underlying profit was 83% higher than last year. Astra's profit contribution to JC&C rose significantly, reflecting improved performances from all of its key business segments. JC&C's direct motor interests saw profit increase by 183%, with a higher contribution by Cycle & Carriage Singapore, and a good recovery from Tunis Rillian's automotive business. In other strategic interests, Takco's contribution was 60% higher, as its automotive business continued to do well. There was an 18% higher contribution from Science City Cement in Thailand, while the contribution from RE in Vietnam was 8% higher. Vietnam produced slightly higher dividend income, sorry, Vinamilk produced slightly higher dividend income in the period. Turning now to Astra. Astra's strong performance benefited from an overall improvement in the Indonesian economy as the impact of the pandemic and related containment measures abated. as well as higher commodity prices and effective government fiscal measures. These improved trading conditions drove stronger performances from all of Astra's main businesses. The contribution from Astra's automotive business grew materially, reflecting the recovery from the significant adverse impact of the pandemic in 2020 and an increase in sales volumes, especially in the car segment, which benefited from temporary luxury sales tax incentives. The contribution from Astra's financial services division increased due to higher contributions from its consumer finance businesses, which saw a 25% increase in new amounts financed, as well as its general insurance businesses. These increases were mainly due to lower loan loss provisioning. There was a significant increase in the contribution from Astra's heavy equipment, mining and construction division, due to a 97% increase in Komatsu heavy equipment sales, as well as higher parts and service revenues. There was also a higher overburden removal volume and an increase in gold sales, as well as a slight increase in coal production by the group's mining contracting operations. Astra's agribusiness division performed significantly better, largely due to an increase in crude palm oil prices. The group's infrastructure and logistics division saw a significant increase in its contribution, mainly due to higher toll road revenues and increased operating margins. Moving from the operating company's trading performance to the group's balance sheet, the balance sheet remains strong, with shareholders' funds up 1% to $29.8 billion at 31 December 2021. Increased consolidated net borrowings, excluding financial services companies, and higher gearing, primarily reflected the acquisition of Jardine Strategic's minority shareholdings in 2021. Since the acquisition, and compared to the position at the half-year, the group has made good progress in reducing net borrowings and gearing closer to historic norms. The impact of the acquisition is shown at the corporate line in the lower table on the slide. The Jardine Matheson corporate net debt position at year end also reflected $584 million of share buybacks completed within 2021. Of this, $349 million was within the current $500 million program, which is now practically complete. The net borrowings of the group's financial services companies, comprising primarily the consumer finance businesses within Astra, were broadly unchanged from the end of 2020. Looking more closely at the group's net borrowings excluding financial service companies in Hong Kong land, the increase was primarily due to the acquisition of new sites during the year. DFI Retail's net borrowings rose primarily due to investments in new IKEA stores in Taiwan and Indonesia. Mandarin Oriental saw its net borrowings increase slightly, reflecting investments made to redevelop the Causeway Bay site. Jardine Cycle & Carriages' move to a consolidated net cash position, excluding the net borrowings from Astra's financial services subsidiaries, from a net borrowing position at the end of 2020 was mainly due to Astra's strong trading cash flows. JC&C Parents' net borrowings at the end of the year were in line with the previous year end at $1.5 billion. Turning now to cash and liquidity, cash flow from operations was lower in 2021 despite higher operating profits, primarily due to networking capital outflows. These were mainly in Hong Kong land due to increased investment in development properties projects and in Astra's businesses as they returned to growth as a result of improved trading conditions in 2021. The group received cash inflows during the year of $1.5 billion from the strategic sale of the Zengfu China business and the two Zengfu Hong Kong properties, the proceeds of which were used to repay borrowings at Jardine Matheson Corporate. Other items were relatively stable compared to the prior year. The group's businesses continue to be cash generative, supported by strong balance sheets. Although gearing at the year end was higher than in 2020, we remain committed to bringing gearing levels down over time, closer to historic norms. Our prudent funding approach, shaped by our capital allocation framework and our commitment to strong investment-grade credit metrics, remains unchanged. On liquidity, the group has significant undrawn committed borrowing facilities and has substantial capacity to deploy capital to finance future growth. This concludes my summary of the performance and financial position of the group. Thank you. I'll now remind all attendees to please send through your questions if you haven't already by pressing submit question on your screen and then hand back to John.

Thank you, Graham. Turning to the outlook, the strong recovery of most of our businesses in 2021 showed the resilience and responsiveness to improve trading conditions. Looking to 2022, the group's performance will continue to reflect the impacts of the pandemic, as well as underlying conditions across our key markets. Currently, our businesses in Hong Kong in particular are facing greater challenges than perhaps at any time since the onset of the pandemic, and the impact of this on the group's operations remains unclear. Astra is expected to benefit from strong commodity prices and a solid economic recovery in Indonesia, both of which have continued into the first quarter of the year. And in Hong Kong land, while market conditions in our key cities in the Chinese mainland remain sound, Normal progression of our project portfolio means it is likely we will see a slowing of project completions in the development properties business. We will also continue to support our customers and communities appropriately in Hong Kong. We remain, of course, confident in our long-term strategy rooted in these growth markets, and we will continue to focus on our core priorities of driving operational excellence, evolving the group's portfolio and finding new growth opportunities in order to deliver long-term value. On a final note, I'd like to again take this opportunity to thank colleagues across all our businesses for their continued dedication to their customers and communities throughout the difficult conditions over these past two years. They have delivered strong results in 2021 and are are the foundation on which our confidence is built for the future. We have a question coming in from Citi, which I'll direct to you, Graham, which is, would you please remind us what Jardine's dividend policy is? Let's start there.