Hong Kong’s MTR Corp posts profits of HK$7.78 billion for last year, down 20.8%, as property development earnings fall 80.1%
- Rail giant CEO Jacob Kam vows company will continue to practise prudent cost management while seeking out smart technologies and innovations
- Revenue climbs 19.17 per cent, but net profit from property development falls 80.1 per cent compared with year before
CEO Jacob Kam Chak-pui warned on Thursday the rail firm would continue to face a volatile global economic environment fraught with issues such as geopolitical dynamics, inflationary pressures and high interest rates.
“To counter these challenges, we will keep practising prudent cost management while seeking out smart technologies and innovations that can make our railway operations and maintenance even more efficient,” Kam said.
“We will also continue to expand our railway network in Hong Kong and seek commercially viable opportunities in mainland China and overseas to drive business growth,” he added.
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Separately, the government announced on Thursday the reappointment of MTR Corp chairman Rex Auyeung Pak-kuen for another 1½ years, effective from July this year until the end of December in 2025. He first took up the post in July 2019.
Auyeung said he was honoured by the reappointment and pledged his company would continue to “innovate to maintain competitiveness” and “drive the sustainable development of Hong Kong’s railway system”.
The company said revenue climbed 19.17 per cent to HK$57 billion last year from HK$47.8 billion a year earlier after cross-border travel between Hong Kong and mainland China fully resumed, which included the return of the city’s high-speed rail link after three years of Covid-19 entry curbs.
The rail giant’s net profit included HK$2.08 billion from property development, which was 80.1 per cent lower than in 2022, while the gain from the fair value measurement of investment properties rebounded to HK$1.4 billion from a loss of HK$810 million in 2022.
The gains from property development were largely generated from projects such as Lohas Park in Tseung Kwan O.
Kam said with the scrapping of the property cooling measures, the firm was expected to re-tender the Tung Chung East Station project in a year.
“We are closely monitoring market conditions and reviewing our programme for the tendering of property development projects,” he said.
In terms of passengers, the figure rose 24.9 per cent from 2022 to 1.9 billion last year amid a gradual return to normal with domestic operations restoring to pre-pandemic levels. The high-speed rail posted a record high ridership of more than 20 million passenger journeys last year.
Transport operations posted a loss of HK$1.11 billion, compared with a deficit of HK$4.7 billion in 2022.
‘More mainland Chinese cities may join Hong Kong solo traveller scheme’
Kam added MTR Corp was in talks with mainland rail authorities about adding two high-speed rail stops in Xian and Qingdao, in view of Beijing’s inclusion of the two mainland cities in the Hong Kong solo traveller scheme.
The scheme allows eligible applicants to visit the city on an individual basis.
Lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun, former chairman of the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, said MTR Corp could achieve stable growth from its non-property operations with projected gains over HK$10 billion a year in the long term, despite the drop in property development profits last year.
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“The property business goes up and down but MTR Corp’s non-property revenue will achieve stable growth as it has undertaken several new rail projects with property rights and guaranteed hefty commercial income in the future,” Tien said. “I have faith in its long-term development.”
In 2020, MTR Corp lost money for the first time since its listing two decades ago, posting a deficit of HK$4.8 billion as it reeled from the effects of the 2019 social unrest and the pandemic.
The company’s directors proposed a final dividend of 89 HK cents per share, the same as in 2022, taking the full-year amount to HK$1.31 per share.
