Shangri-La pares FY21 loss to US$290.6m as revenue rises

SHANGRI-LA Asia S07 : S07 0%on Thursday (Mar 24) stemmed some losses for its full year ended Dec 31, 2021, paring its FY2021 net loss to US$290.6 million, from US$460.2 million a year ago.

Loss per share stood at 8.13 US cents, compared with the loss per share of 12.89 US cents a year ago.

Consolidated revenue improved 20.1 per cent to US$1.2 billion, from US$1.03 billion a year ago, driven mainly by domestic demand in mainland China and Hong Kong.

The mainboard-listed company said this was mainly driven by domestic demand in mainland China and Hong Kong, as well as the loosening of restrictions in the United Kingdom and France. This contributed a US$205.4 million increase in hotel operations revenue.

Shangri-La also saw a US$4 million increase in investment properties revenue, mostly due to its subsidiary investment properties located in China and Sri Lanka.

In Singapore, the company's hotel occupancy was at 37 per cent for the full year, down 45 per cent from the year before.

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Meanwhile, revenue per available room (RevPAR) in Singapore was up 6 per cent to US$54, compared with US$51 a year ago, mainly driven by the domestic staycation business. This also contributed to the growth of the company's food and beverage businesses at its hotels.

The board has recommended no final dividend for FY2021.

"We expect 2022 to be broadly similar to 2021, where we observed a tale of 2 worlds," said Shangri-La. "One for mainland China and Hong Kong, enclosed in a bubble as an effort to fully contain the spread of the virus".

As for the rest of the world, Shangri-La said its strong results from the UK and France provides them with optimism that the hotel industry is "set to benefit from the pent-up demand as restrictions continue to loosen".

Against the "tale of 2 worlds backdrop", the company say it is bracing for a period of high restrictions in Hong Kong and China with the worldwide Omicron variant outbreak, while preparing for business resumption in countries such as Malaysia and the Philippines where restrictions are being gradually lifted.

Shangri-La is also closely watching the Ukraine crisis. "We have already hedged around 60 per cent of our total debts against rising interest rates," it added.

Shares of Shangri-La closed HK$0.12 or 1.9 per cent higher at HK$6.47 on Thursday.