Harbour Centre slips into net loss as Covid-19, social unrest sink luxury hotel occupancy in Hong Kong

Name: Hong Kong’s tough quarantine and travel restrictions
Uploaded: 2020-07-23T14:55:21.000Z
Duration: 2 min 49 s
Description: Hong Kong’s tough quarantine and travel restrictions

The owner of The Murray and Marco Polo hotels, reports net loss of HK$1.28 billion versus a profit a year earlier

Business recovery in the second half would be challenging as the city faces a third wave of Covid-19 cases

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The Marco Polo in Tsim Sha Tsui, one of the group’s flagship assets. Photo: Shutterstock

Georgina Lee

Published: 10:55pm, 23 Jul 2020Updated: 1:46am, 24 Jul 2020

Harbour Centre Development, a luxury hotel operator controlled by Wharf Reic, has slipped into a loss in the first six months of this year, citing the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

The company, which owns the Marco Polo Hong Kong and The Murray, incurred a net loss of HK$1.28 billion (US$165 million) through June 30, versus a net profit of HK$268 million a year earlier. Revenue dropped 18 per cent to HK$654 million.

Its two hotels only achieved 15 per cent in occupancy rate, sending room revenue down by 97 per cent. The unrelenting Covid-19 pandemic suggests a meaningful recovery for the sector is a long way off, it added in an exchange filing on Thursday.

“Covid-19 will continue to affect the Group’s businesses, as its duration and extent of impact are not easy to determine under this volatile situation,” the company said. “The local political issues and escalating Sino-US tension also cast great uncertainties over the outlook.”

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Hong Kong’s tough quarantine and travel restrictions

The gloomy assessment came as Hong Kong battles with a third wave of coronavirus cases. New daily infections hit a record high of 118 Thursday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 2,249 and deaths to 15.