CapitaLand Investment (CLI) reported earnings of $433 million for 1FY2022, down 38% y-o-y as the company booked lower portfolio gains.
Operating earnings, meanwhile, was up 31% y-o-y to $346 million, with stronger contribution from its fee income-related business.
The company managed better performance from its fund and lodging management, higher contributions from lodging properties in most geographies, as well as better performance at its retail properties in Singapore and Malaysia with the easing Covid-19 related restrictions.
Revenue, in the same period, was up 29% y-o-y to $1.35 billion.
In 1H 2022, CLI unlocked $1.6 billion of capital through divestments, slightly more than half its annual capital recycling target of $3 billion.
As at end June, CLI’s funds under management (FUM) stood at $86 billion. It maintains it is on track to reach its target of $100 billion by 2024.
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The company says it is “on-target” to reach 160,000 lodging units by 2023, with around 153,000 units now from the recent acquisition of Oakwood Worldwide, which will add 15,000 units.
“The post-pandemic reopening of most economies around the world has boosted retail and workspace recovery and provided strong support for our lodging business as demand for global travel resumes,” says CLI chairman Miguel Ko.
“We will seize these tailwinds and leverage our deep market expertise to fast-track the growth of our businesses. At the same time, we will continue to maintain strong capital management discipline and proactively put in place robust measures to mitigate our exposure to rising interest rates, higher inflation, and market volatility due to geopolitical uncertainties,” he adds.
Lee Chee Koon, CLI’s group CEO, says the company has achieved a 21% y-o-y increase in its fund management fee income, led by its private funds business.
“Our teams on the ground will continue to actively seek attractive opportunities to further diversify our portfolio across product lines, geographies and asset classes to ensure that we are able to sustainably grow our business,” he says.
“CLI is in a strong financial position, and we have ample dry powder ready to deploy on the right opportunities to propel our long-term sustainable growth as a global real estate investment manager,” says Lee.
Shares in CLI closed 9 cents higher or 2.24% up at $4.10 on Aug 10.
