John Keells Holdings records Rs.8.09 Bn EBITDA in 2Q-2024/25

John Keells Holdings recorded an EBITDA of Rs.8.09 billion in the second quarter of 2024/25. However the Group EBITDA at Rs.8.09 billion is a decrease of 4% against Group EBITDA of Rs.8.42 billion recorded in the previous financial year. Group EBITDA for the quarter under review includes substantial pre-opening costs pertaining to the ramp-up associated with the opening of the ‘Cinnamon Life’ hotel at the ‘City of Dreams Sri Lanka’. Excluding ‘City of Dreams Sri Lanka’, Group EBITDA for the second quarter of 2024/25 recorded an increase of 8% to Rs.9.28 billion [2023/24 Q2: Rs.8.62 billion].

The 687-key ‘Cinnamon Life’ hotel, restaurants and banquet facilities commenced operations on October 15, 2024. While operations have commenced and continued for only a few weeks, the feedback received to date from our customers have exceeded expectations. Fit-out works relating to the remainder of the project comprising the 113-key ‘Nuwa’ Hotel and gaming operations are progressing well and expected to be operational along with the retail mall, with overall completion of these elements scheduled for mid-CY 2025.

In July 2024, the Company announced a Rights Issue of ordinary shares and the company raised Rs.24,042,175,200 through the Rights Issue of 150,263,595 new ordinary shares at an issue price of Rs.160 per share. The Rights Issue was oversubscribed. The construction and installation works on the West Container Terminal (WCT-1) at the Port of Colombo is progressing well. The first batch of quay and yard cranes arrived in September 2024, following which the commissioning is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2024/25.

The Transportation industry group recorded an increase in profitability, driven by both the Group’s Ports and Shipping business and the Bunkering business. The Supermarket business recorded a strong performance during the quarter, with same store sales recording encouraging growth of 14%, driven by customer footfall growth of 12%, resulting in growth in profitability and margins. The performance of the Leisure industry group was impacted by the pre-opening costs pertaining to the ‘Cinnamon Life’ hotel, together with the decline in profitability mainly attributable to the Maldivian Resorts due to the translation impact of a stronger Rupee as compared to the corresponding period in the previous financial year.

The Property industry group recorded a growth in profitability driven by profit recognition from residential apartment unit sales at ‘City of Dreams Sri Lanka’, real estate sales in Digana, through Rajawella Holdings (Private) Limited, and revenue recognition at the ‘TRI-ZEN’ residential project. The Group’s carbon footprint per million rupees of revenue decreased by 11% to 0.38 MT, and the water withdrawal per million rupees of revenue decreased by 26% to 6.79 cubic meters when compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year.