Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our financial results briefing. We're pleased to have the opportunity to update you on the company's performance for this quarter, third quarter of 2024, and nine months year to date, and to provide insight into the key drivers of our results. As always, we value your interest in our business and appreciate the time you've taken to be with us today. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that we will walk you through the financial highlights, discuss the strategic initiatives, and address any questions you may have. But following the presentation, we will open the floor for a Q&A where Zeid will be available to provide further clarity. I'll hand it over to Zeid now to start the presentation. Zeid, over to you. Thank you, Azura. Assalamualaikum and a very good evening, everyone on the call. I think we're happy to report our nine-month 2024 financial results for the period ending at a profit after tax position of MYR 606 million, which is 19% higher than 2019's PAT for the same period. That comes on the back of passenger movements to the tune of 101 million passengers across our operations in Malaysia and Turkey, with a revenue of MYR 4.26 billion. This has led to an EBITDA of MYR 2.07 billion, a relatively percentage increase versus 2019 as well. Now, when we go deep dive into the operational and strategic highlights, I think we've shared before our trajectory of bringing in airlines into Malaysia, and we're happy to share that we've already achieved, we've already exceeded, in fact, pre-pandemic, a number of scheduled airlines at our airports in Malaysia: 73 airlines thus far versus 69. We're looking forward to another two additional airlines by the end of this year. In our operations in Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen, happy to share as well that Pegasus and Turkish Airlines' AJet has really increased their capacity with new deliveries of A321neo. And on top of that, they're flying to at least 90 new destinations across the world. For KLIA, I think achieved an ASQ score of 5.0, the highest score for the month of September, scoring well on various components, including ambience, entertainment, and leisure. Of course, it comes on the back of a series of initiatives that the team on the ground have been working hard on to make sure that there's increased passenger dwell time, as well as a seamless experience throughout the airport. And we've already, I think, heavily started our digitalization initiatives over the last couple of quarters. We have planned 60 units of self-service bag drops at KLIA Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 combined, as well as an additional 40 units in the various domestic and international airports under MASB. We've already completed 16 of these 100-odd units, with many more to come in the coming months. On the commercial front, our occupancy rate remains healthy at 84%. While we're still not there yet in terms of our 2024 target of 86%, this has already exceeded the 2019's occupancy rate of 79%. You can see that gradual increase over the last couple of quarters as well. Where for Eraman, our duty-free business, the average sales per ticket is significantly higher at about MYR 325 versus MYR 23 in 2019. Now, just yesterday, we launched our brand new Eraman contactless outlet at KLIA Terminal 1. We invite you to visit it when you have the time. Hopefully, you can spend a bit more of your money there because there are a lot of exciting new offerings that we have versus what you have seen in the past. On the operating agreement, I think we've already shared in the past quarters where we've gotten approval to proceed with the expansion of Penang International Airport with the capital recovery mechanism in place, taking capacity to 12 million passengers from 6.5. This month, we also received approval from the Government of Malaysia for the expansion of Kota Kinabalu International Airport, taking its capacity by the additional 3 million passengers per annum to 12 million, with a CapEx spend of RM 423 million. The capital recovery mechanism for KK is similar to Penang, where there will be various recovery mechanisms in place. In the recently announced federal budget, I think the Government of Malaysia has announced the expansion of Miri Airport and Tawau Airport, as well as an extension of the runway for Kota Bharu Airport. I think when we talk about the developments, many airports require necessary investments, and we're happy that we're sharing the burden with the Government of Malaysia across our network. For our associates and JVs, as well as our subsidiaries, all of them remain profitable throughout the year. There's a marked improvement versus 2023, where even some of our associates, JVs, and subsidiaries as well were not profitable in the past. I'll skip the passenger traffic for the moment and just deep dive into the summary of the results on page seven. Now, for our revenue, largely driven by passenger growth, as you can see, there's a 13.9% increase versus the same period in 2019. That has reflected against a 20% increase in revenue to MYR 4.26 billion. The bulk of the increase comes in the aeronautical segment at about a MYR 432 million increase versus the prior period, followed by the commercial rental at a MYR 180 million increase to MYR 1.1 billion. On the other income, it is slightly lower than 2023 due to the absence of an unrealized forex gain on Hyderabad investment, which we carried at fair value to profit and loss. Recall that we disposed of this investment at the end of 2023, apologies, and obviously pocketed the cash in January this year. Operating costs remain high at about a 3% increase on a core cost basis, mainly due to the operational requirements, including higher maintenance and staff costs versus 2023's corresponding period, but mitigated by a net provision for doubtful debts about MYR 39 million. For share of profits and associates and JV, as I mentioned earlier, it's doing quite well. All associates and JVs are profitable at about MYR 20 million combined. On taxation and zakat, in the second quarter of this year, we actually recognize that we've put tax asset of MYR 60 million, therefore contributing largely to the profit versus 2023's corresponding taxation and zakat amount. For core costs, which we typically guide every quarter, page nine, core costs remain relatively strong per passenger at about MYR 16.25, sorry, MYR 16.19, slight reduction versus the MYR 16.25 in 2023, again due to some inflationary pressures and higher operating cost requirements. We're trending gradually towards a 2019's core cost per pax of MYR 13.6. Typically, aside from core costs, you have a lot of revenue-related cost increases in tandem with the revenue increase itself, whether it's for the retail business, whether it's for the user fee in Malaysia, or even the revenue share in Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen. Whereas for staff costs, you know there is a higher headcount for the year across the group by about 278. We move to the group balance sheet for page 11. Cash and money market investments at about MYR 2.5 billion, slightly higher than the MYR 2.35 billion at the end of 2023. But that's because in 2024, we've made several lumpy payments in respect to prior year's payables. For example, we have the utilization fee of Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen that's MYR 130 million, about MYR 640 million. We've also made payments for some of our utilities that were carried forward in the past. The user fees for 2023 were paid in early 2024 as well. So all in, I think there were about MYR 1 billion worth of payments in respect of 2023 that were made in 2024. Hence, that only slight increase of about MYR 200 million. But notwithstanding that, the operating cash per month remains at about MYR 220 million for the group. So still relatively healthy levels. On borrowings, we have with us about MYR 4.6 billion on our books, MYR 3.4 billion for Malaysia, and about MYR 1.16 billion for Turkey via the syndicated term loan. On the Malaysian front, we'll share later that we've completed the refinancing, sorry, we've done the Sukuk issuance in view of the maturing debt. And I'll share later how much savings we anticipated to receive due to the refinancing itself. Gross gearing remains at about 0.56 times, just slightly lower than 2023, whereas net gearing is still well below 0.3 times at 0.26 times. Now, I'll skip the cash flow summary because I've guided earlier some of the lumpy payments we had to make in 2023 and move to the borrowing profile on page 13. On November 22nd, we completed our Sukuk issuance via issuing three tranches of debt to the tune of MYR 1.6 billion. The first tranche at MYR 400 million over five years carries a coupon of 3.95%. The second tranche at MYR 600 million over seven years at 4.02%, and the third and final tranche at MYR 600 million for 10 years at 4.08%. All in, the blended rate is low by about 100 basis points versus what we're due to refinance come December this year. What we're refinancing is effectively the perpetual Sukuk, MYR 1 billion, as well as the maturing MYR 600 million senior Sukuk, both in middle December. That 100 basis points carries a savings of approximately MYR 18 million moving forward. So I think that's something very happy that we would like to share with all of you. Of course, that comes on the back of our AAA ratings that we maintain with RAM Ratings Malaysia. For traffic, in a nutshell, on page 15, Malaysia's international seat capacity is about 90% of 2019 levels, still slightly behind, whereas the load factors are relatively in line at about 77%. Domestic, I think this trend is largely similar to what we've seen in the past, 75% recovery. But what's crucial is that we've seen a lot of promising news with regards to visa relaxation over the last 12 months, including recently where the Chinese government has extended the 15-day visa-free requirement to 30 days itself until the end of 2025. So I think that's something that is very encouraging, and we hope that this visa-free relaxation will continue long into the future. For Turkey, no surprises, international seat capacity is still doing well ahead of 2019 levels at 171%, whereas the load factors are again hovering at about the 80% mark. Domestic seat capacity is only at 93% recovery. We're not complaining because a lot of the airlines have shifted their capacity to international, mainly Pegasus and Turkish Airlines AJet. So ISG still remains one of the 10 busiest airports in Europe for the period. But like I said, we've just come off the summer months, so traffic is expected to slightly taper down as usual. I think despite that, we're happy to also report that ISG actually saw its highest international passenger movement on 24 November, as well as highest aircraft movement on the same day itself. So they reported 75,300 international passengers on the 24th of November, as well as 740 total aircraft movements for the airport. So despite coming off the summer period, the busy summer period entering the winter, it saw its first snowfall over the weekend, and ISG is still showing very strong passenger movements for international as well as aircraft movements itself. With that, I'll pass on to Azura for the subsequent slides and for the final takeaways. Thanks, Azura. Thank you, Zeid. I'll take you through our three-year strategic journey, which the board has effectively approved earlier this year. First and foremost, I'll touch on enhancing airline and hub connectivity. I think we've gone through this a number of times in the past, but let's just quickly go through this in terms of what we've done up to third quarter of this year. In active service, we have 13 new airlines so far, and we have another two, actually one more coming in December. Hong Kong Express just commenced operations just last week, Penang to Hong Kong. British Airways have unfortunately deferred their commencement to April next year due to aircraft unavailability. But fret not, they have said that they will commence in April 2025, and let's hope that the aircraft will come in time for them, as well as for other airlines throughout the globe. In fourth quarter of 2024, as I mentioned, we do expect one more airline to come in. Jiangxi Air has mentioned that they will commence operations in the fourth quarter of this year. So in essence, 52 new services have been launched to date by existing airlines, and we have now increased links to ASEAN, China, India, and other key destinations throughout the world. Moving on to the next slide. This is just another pictorial presentation of the airlines that we have that are currently operating in KLIA. As Zeid mentioned earlier, we now have 73 airlines altogether up to September this year. But if you include Hong Kong Express, which just commenced last week, we now have 74 airlines operating in Malaysia, in and out of Malaysia, compared to 69 airlines in 2019. We are actively pursuing at least 15 more airlines. Hopefully, we will be able to share more good news with you in the coming months and quarters. Moving on to the Chinese passenger movement, we're happy to share with you that they are now back to pre-pandemic levels, especially from July this year, where they actually exceeded pre-pandemic levels. We recorded 0.66 million Chinese passengers in July, 0.71 million passengers in August, and 0.61 million passengers in September this year. Essentially, all three months have exceeded pre-pandemic levels by quite a strong percentage. In terms of weekly frequencies, we've seen that the numbers are now almost, or have either exceeded pre-COVID or almost at pre-COVID levels by now. So moving on to commercial and retail, Zeid has also mentioned that we are now at 84% altogether in terms of operational occupancy, just 2% below what we have targeted for the entire year. But we still have a few months to go, three more months to go to reach this target, and we do have a target of opening up at least 30 more outlets throughout our network. Again, Eraman's sales per ticket grew by 39% versus pre-pandemic. It is now at 325 per ticket compared to 233 pre-COVID. On the right side of this slide, you would see the latest outlets that we have opened more recently, especially in the third quarter of this year. Charlotte Tilbury just opened yesterday at the new Eraman Contact Pier. This is actually the first ASEAN outlet in the airport, ASEAN airport outlet in ASEAN. And we're proud to host Charlotte Tilbury. We've also opened. I'm inclined to say Bacha Coffee, but I think the correct pronunciation is actually Bacha. They've recently opened in KLIA T1, and there are a number of local brands that have opened in T1 as well, including Kapten Batik and Little Malaysia. Can I pass these three slides to you, Zeid? I think you would too on these. Sure. So as I mentioned, the new OA allows us a capital recovery mechanism to develop airports across our network. The first project that was announced was Penang International, where we're adding about an additional 5.5 million capacity with an extra 12 aircraft stands for the terminal itself. Similarly, Kota Kinabalu International, an additional 3 million capacity, an extra 7 stands as well. Both will take a four-year and two-year construction period respectively, with a similar capital recovery mechanism of a reduction in the user fees as well as a recovery mechanism to be finalized with MAVCOM for the balance of the capex portion itself. So we're looking forward to these two developments as part of our new operating agreement's capital recovery mechanism. On the KLIA Aeropolis front, we mentioned as well that on the back of the 99-year lease secured in 2022, there will be prioritized developments across the 8,500 acres. The area is shaded in the colored shaded areas, basically. The four prioritized development areas include the AIP, Aeropolis Industrial Park, which is next to the Sepang International Circuit, Aeropolis Resort City, or ARC for short. Again, that's primarily near the Mitsui Outlet Park location. Aeropolis Solar Park, which is at the south of the 10 by 10 plot of land. And last but not least, the KLIA Aeroway Hub, where we have various locations being earmarked one being Aeronautical Support Zone 2, and second location next to Runway 1. Again, these developments will focus on various anchor tenants, catalytic tenants that we are bringing on board soon, subject to approvals where they may follow similar models with a joint venture development, a built-to-suit facility, or even our regular lease itself. If you look at the subsequent page, I think we've already demarcated the respective areas with phase one priority developments. Where the existing operators, as I mentioned, where it's Mitsui Outlet Park, new operators to come in, I think there's a lot of potential here in the future for generating more returns from the land surrounding KLIA, with a lot of complementary and support facilities as well to the aviation business around KLIA. For key takeaways, let's wrap up the presentation very quickly by sharing a snapshot of what we have to look forward to. One is traffic closely recovers to pre-pandemic levels, particularly for Malaysia. There's a lot of supportive policies, as mentioned, the visa relaxation measures and initiatives, as announced in the recent federal budget that leads up nicely to Visit Malaysia 2026. Number of airlines, again, exceeded pre-pandemic levels with several airlines coming in. I think we have more, again, several airlines to come in in the coming years too, while anticipating further growth in our operations in Turkey as well with the local carriers. We improve passenger experience at our airports. Again, we didn't touch much on ISG. There's a series of terminal decongestion initiatives, including the launch of a new car park location where we can utilize our processes effectively to handle more throughput. I think that's something that you can look forward to in the coming months as we again bring in more and more self-service bag drops and check-in counters itself. Whereas the commercial reset is a continuous work in progress. The case in point is Eraman very successfully launched its food court during the pandemic, Food Garden, and then that followed with the duty-free space at the satellite building and more recently the Contact Pier expansion with a lot of exciting offerings, so I thought that you have a commercial team bringing external tenants into the commercial space with Din Tai Fung initially. We have Din Tai Fung at Terminal 2 as well. I think I mentioned the more recent tenants who came on board, but yeah, I think the commercial reset will definitely contribute to a steady increase in our non-aeronautical revenues. With the new OA, Penang being the first deliverable, whereas Kota Kinabalu soon right after, I think that helps us develop these airports with the government of Malaysia alongside some of the projects that the government themselves will be funding, such as Tawau, Miri, and Kota Bharu's expansion. Across the group itself, I reported that the subsidiaries as well as the JVs and associates have sustained profitability over the last couple of quarters. I think we're on a solid footing now for future years of the company. With that, I think we'll end the presentation and open the floor for Q&A. Thank you so much. I think we have a first question. Ahmad, hi, Ahmad. Hi, Zeid. Can you hear me? Yeah, Ahmad, apologies. I got the dates mixed up for this briefing. No worries, no worries, no worries. Anyway, I just wanted to just follow up on the ISG concession negotiation. Has there been any latest developments with regards on that front, whether it's still ongoing? Because the last guidance that you gave was that it should be finalized by end of this year. But yeah, there's been no development since. No, there's no developments. Okay, so no development since then. Okay, all right. Okay, all right. Okay, that's all from my side. Thanks. I'll jump back to the queue. Ahmad, there's no one else in the queue. So if you have any more questions, feel free to jump back in. You can jump right back in. Okay, let me see if I have any more questions. So far, none. Yeah, that's all from my side, to be honest. Okay, jump right back into the queue, Ahmad. We have Samuel next. Hi, Samuel. Hi guys. Just two questions from me. I'm not too sure if my eyes deceive me, but it looks like the formulation, the other expenses is actually positive this quarter. I suppose that's relating to a reversal of provision for doubtful debts. Could you guys state the nature of that reversal? And then number two, under the cost breakdown again, it seems like for staff costs in both Malaysia and Turkey, coupled with maintenance costs in Malaysia, seems to have jumped quite a lot quarter on quarter. Utilities as well for Turkey. Is there a reason for that? And can we expect more backloading? In the fourth quarter in the past, there was a bit of backloading on the cost. Would that recur this year, or are we done in the third quarter of this year already? Thanks. Yeah, so to answer your question on the provisions for doubtful debts, where there's a write-back about a net MYR 40 million for the year to date. For the quarter to date, itself, that quantum is higher at MYR 60 million. Yes, there is a recovery of doubtful debts. For the year to date, it's about MYR 66 million recovery, right? Sorry, MYR 50 million, MYR 50 million year to date recovery. So that 50 million recovery had actually contributed to the credit for the others itself. For the escalation in staff costs in particular, on a Q on Q basis, we had not provided for any bonus provisions for the first half of the year. For the third quarter, we started providing for the necessary provisions in staff cost formulation in Turkey, hence the right observation that you mentioned earlier. Obviously, there will be a follow-through of that same bonus provision in the final fourth quarter as well, all things equal. For utilities and maintenance, particularly for maintenance costs, Samuel, in Turkey, there's obviously inflation increases that we've seen throughout the year. There was another revision in the second half, hence that's why there was a slight increase for Turkey's maintenance expenses. Right, okay. So just jumping back to the first question, the reversal of provision with doubtful debts. So far this year, is it 50 million, five zero? On one particular item, we've managed to, yeah, yes. 50 million in total, right? Can I ask, is this a local airline? Are these local airlines, foreign airlines, tenants, or is it a combination of all three? I mean, typically with any write-back, it's a combination of everything, right? But the biggest component will be from airlines. Right. Is this a local airline or foreign airlines, or is it many airlines? Is it a blanket mix? Slightly concentrated on several airlines. Several airlines, right? All right, okay. Great. Thank you. Thanks from me. Thanks, Samuel. Happy to entertain any follow-up queries if there are any. Hope you will give it another two minutes or so. Okay, Ahmad here. Probably I'll just ask anyway. With regards to engagements with the Malaysian Aviation Commission, has things changed since the privatization announcement? I mean, are you putting - are any of you putting it on a back burner depending whether it succeeds or not, or is it whatever is ongoing still remains ongoing and active, basically? So that's what I want to get color on. If I get your question correctly, any engagement that we have with our regulators, including MAVCOM, remains status quo, as in continued engagement as per usual. There's nothing that has changed as far as we can tell. So typically with MAVCOM, since you brought up MAVCOM in particular, we have engagements on our quality of service framework regularly. We have engagements on the regulatory charges and the development of such regulatory charges for regulatory period two as well. So those are still ongoing. I mentioned as well on the capital recovery mechanism. That's still in active discussion. So yeah, no changes there, Ahmad. Okay, all right. And similarly as well with whatever's ongoing with the Turkey side as well, that still remains status quo. Because I read recently that the—who was it? The CEO resigned recently, if I can recall correctly. There's been some changes in the management there. So maybe you can give us some updates on that? For ISG, I think there was mutually agreed separation between us and the CEO of ISG, former CEO of ISG. So yeah, I think the management team currently in place is leading the charge as per normal. We have a committee there consisting of four individuals. So yeah, no changes on ISG's fund as well despite the mutual separation with the CEO of ISG. So yeah. Okay, all right. Okay, good to know. All right. I guess that's all from my side. Thanks, Zeid. Thanks, Ahmad. Yep, Aqila on the call. Aqila, go ahead. Yes, hi. Just a very small question for me. I just wanted to ask a little bit more about the Turkey side of things. It's recovered very well in comparison to pre-pandemic levels. I think I caught Zeid mentioning that there are some decongestion initiatives going on. So am I right to then assume that when it comes to the trajectory of passenger movements moving forward in Turkey, that it'll be quite limited? What's that looking like for Turkey at this point onwards? The capacity for Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport is 41 million passengers per annum. And that's a relatively stretched capacity. Nevertheless, as I mentioned, there are some decongestion initiatives. We've moved, for example, if you've been there recently, some of the counters for security have been swapped with immigration. So the queues for immigration are a lot better. We've moved some commercial outlets across. We've added more screening counters and bays for the ingress into the terminal. But yeah, I think what it is is that ISG, when you look at capacity as a whole, is typically peak hour capacity. So it's not an absolute number. And again, that peak hour capacity can be managed accordingly via slots, right? Whereas ISG is operating not necessarily at a 24-hour airport, but there are slots to be gained from time to time. So I think that's something that we're coping okay for the time being with ISG, at least in the next year or so. I think there's still some spare capacity in that respect. Okay, thank you. Thanks, Aqila. Okay, if there are no further questions, then perhaps on behalf of the team at Malaysia Airports, we'd like to wish you a very good winter break ahead, school holidays as well. And if we don't catch up anytime soon, hope you have a Happy New Year as well. Thank you and Assalamualaikum. Thank you.
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