(31 March 2025) Realord Group Holdings Limited (the “Company”, together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”, stock code: 1196) is pleased to announce its annual results for the year ended 31 December 2024. During the period, the Group recorded a total revenue of approximately HK$428 million, representing a year-on-year and gross profit was HK$153 million.
The principal activities of the Group during the year included the Property Segment, the Financial Services Segment, the Environment Protection (EP) Segment, the Motor Vehicle Parts (MVP) Segment, the Commercial Printing Segment, the Department Store Segment, the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) Segment, and Others Segment.
Property investment Segment
Properties investment, development and commercial operation have always been one of the main development strategies of the Group’s overall business deployment and development goals. The Group holds three investment property projects, namely Realord Villas and Zhangkengjing Property in Longhua District, and Realord Technology Park in Guangming District in Shenzhen, the PRC. The Group also holds proposed development project and properties under development namely Laiying Garden in Nanshan District and Qiankeng Property in Longhua District respectively in Shenzhen, the PRC. There are five property projects on hand as at 31 December 2024. There are five real estate projects in hand. Revenue from the property segment is mainly derived from rental income from the Group's investment properties.
In 2024, the Group generated rental income of HK$42.5 million in FY2024 representing a year-on-year increase of 120%. The increase in rental income was mainly generated from the accrued effective rental income under from the Phase I of Realord Technology Park in FY2024. The number of tenants in the Sincere Mall has increased to 49.
In FY2024, there were various development progress on five property projects. Firstly, for Realord Villas, up to the date of report, the number of tenants of Sincere Mall was 49 including children’s amusement park, education training centres, restaurants, fitness studios and billiard room. Secondly, for Realord Technology Park, the construction scale was approximately 110,000 square meters. For Phase I, a lease agreement was signed with hotel operator with international branded hotel operating experience under a lease term starting from 2024. For Phase II, the development plan will be started once government approval is granted. Thirdly, for Qiankeng Property, the construction scale was approximately 166,000 square meters and the redevelopment works were processing since the Group obtained the construction permits on earthwork and foundation construction in October 2023. In May 2024, the construction planning permit was obtained from relevant government authority. In July 2024, the construction permit was obtained and the redevelopment works on basement main structure engineering were processing up to the date of report. Fourthly, for Zhangkengjing Property, the application of change of land use from industrial use to residential apartments and commercial use was still under review as at the reporting date. Fifthly, for Laiying Garden, the Group obtained the land use permit from relevant government authority in July 2023 and obtained the construction permit on earthwork and foundation construction in March 2024 and the redevelopment works on foundation and earthwork construction were still being processed up to the date of report.
Financial Services Segment
The revenue of Financial Services Segment was HK$132.4 million in FY2024, which decreased by HK$10.1 million or 7.1% as compared to HK$142.5 million in FY2023. The decrease in segment revenue was due to the net effect of (i) decrease in interest income from money lending business and margin financing business by HK$12.1 million and HK$9.5 million respectively; (ii) decrease in commission income from securities broking of HK$20.6 million; and (iii) increase in income from financial services by HK$32.1 million.
Financial Services Segment recorded a segment profit of HK$78.1 million in FY2024, representing an increase of HK$2.4 million as compared to HK$75.7 million in FY2023. In FY2024, the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates since the third quarter of 2024 which stimulated the Hong Kong stock market became more active. Financial Services Segment is committed to providing diversified and premium services to customers in the primary and secondary markets.
EP Segment
EP Segment’s revenue recorded HK$229.2 million in FY2024 due to a stricter credit control on customers and concentrated its business in Japan market. EP Segment remained to be the Group’s major revenue contributor which was benefited from the large scale of Realord EP Japan leased land in Osaka, Japan with approximately 19,609 square meters (4 pieces). EP Segment will concentrate on searching for new sources of metal scraps and exploring new customer especially in Japan.
MVP Segment
The revenue of MVP Segment decreased by HK$41.4 million from HK$43.1 million in FY2023 to HK$1.7 million in FY2024 since the Group imposed stricter credit control on customers and downsized its scale of operations. MVP Segment recorded a segment loss of HK$32.0 million in FY2024 as compared to HK$10.3 million in FY2023. The segment loss was mainly attributable to (i) decrease in revenue; and (ii) increase in provision for expected credit losses from long outstanding trade receivables resulting from the delay in repayments from customers.
LAC Segment
The revenue of LAC Segment generated from provision for citizenship application and consultancy services on citizenship by investment programme (“CBI Programme”) was HK$20.0 million in FY2024 as compared to HK$34.8 million in FY2023. Decrease in revenue was mainly due to decrease in number of application granted by the Minister of Grenada.
The principal business of LAC Segment are provision of citizenship application and consultancy services on CBI Programme and development of the Grenada Project. The Grenada Project involves the development of a mixed property project consisting educational facilities, apartments for student, residential villas, hotel and resort facilities, commercial development and shopping facilities and in a longer plan university establishment(s) and related amenities. The Government of Grenada granted LAC Segment the “Approval Project Status” such that LAC Segment can develop the Grenada Project on foreign investors’ funding in accordance with the local laws under Section 11 of the Grenada Citizenship by Investment Act 15 of 2013 and a CBI Programme in Grenada. Through the CBI Programme, LAC Segment is authorised to raise capital from investors of the Project for funding the construction and development costs. Qualified investors of the real properties will be granted permanent Grenadian citizenship and a passport offering visa-free travel to over 153 countries including the United Kingdom, EU Schengen countries and the Mainland China. The Project marks a significant flag of our Group into the Caribbean region.
The Group is keen to leverage its experience in the Grenada Project to explore further investment opportunities around the Caribbean economic zone and Latin American region. It is the corporate strategy of the Group to invest and/or to form joint ventures with local governments in the Caribbean economic zone to set up and develop new businesses taking advantage of raising capital from foreign investors through the CBI Programme of different countries. The Caribbean economic zone has long been popular with the Western countries such as Europe, the United States of America and Canada, and is an ideal place for vacations. In particular, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis are closer to the United States of America, and both countries have direct flights to Europe, the United States of America and Canada. It is the Group’s strategy to seek for professional investors to jointly invest in the projects in the Caribbean economic zone and Latin American region. Further, the Group is identifying capable and competent business partners with significant track record to participate in the projects. Subject to the planning and the feasibility studies of the projects as well as the requisite approval by the respective local government, it is expected that the Group would kick off the projects in near future.