Pine Care Group Announces 2018 Interim Results

Core Business
The Group’s overall core business has performed well. The occupancy rate of the Group’s eight EA1 care and attention homes remains robust, averaging at approximately 94.8% for the six-month period ended 30 September 2018, compared to approximately 92.4% for the same period last year. The Group focuses on business expansion strategy and developing and bringing new concepts to the market, which includes (i) the luxury segment in Hong Kong (ii) Mainland China and (iii) the Integrated Senior Wellness Hub. The Group has made significant headway in bringing these concepts into reality.

Luxury Segment – Pine Care Place
Operation of the Group’s new care and attention home, Pine Care Place, located at Yoho Mall I (Extension) in Yuen Long, has commenced operation since June 2018. Pine Care Place is positioned as an upscale care and attention home. The new care and attention home has a floor area of approximately 33,424 square feet and accomodates 68 residential care places. In addition to a higher standard of accommodation and a higher labour ratio than the EA1 standards, Pine Care Place also offers more individualised services and lifestyle-oriented facilities, including a mini-cinema, hair salon, library, indoor garden, and a meditation room. During the period under review, Pine Care Place has received very positive feedback from the market and has already achieved double-digit occupancy rate in the first few months of the operation.

Dementia Specialist – Pine Care Point
The renovation of the Group’s second luxury care and attention home, Pine Care Point, is well underway. Pine Care Point, with a gross floor area of approximately 43,400 square feet, will be positioned as a luxury care and attention home with a specialisation in dementia care. Designed for approximately 102 individual rooms, Pine Care Point is expected to offer same quality services and similar standard of accommodation as Pine Care Place, and include facilities that are specifically designed and suited for dementia patients. The Group believes that the development of Pine Care Point will enable the Group to establish the market leadership position in the burgeoning upscale market segment, while at the same time to address the strong growth in demand for specialised dementia care. The operation of Pine Care Point is expected to begin in the first half of 2019.

Mainland China – Pine Care Yada
The Group’s projects in Mainland China, which include Pine Care Yada (Wuzhen) Elderly Centre and Pine Care Yada (Wuzhen) Day Care Centre, are expected to commence operations in the first half of 2019. These projects involve strategic collaborations with Yada International (HK) Limited under the brand “Pine Care Yada”. Both centres are located inside Wuzhen Graceland, a large scale healthcare, aged-care and leisure community which consists of over 5,000 households, in Wuzhen, Zhejiang.

Pine Care Yada (Wuzhen) Elderly Centre, with a total area of approximately 77,400 square feet, is designed to accommodate 83 residential care places while Pine Care Yada (Wuzhen) Day Care Centre is designed to provide day time services to the residents of Wuzhen Graceland such as social activities, customised dietary menus designed by nutritionists, nursing for bed sore, one-on-one training targeting on the elderly with dementia, group training for the elderly with dementia and home care services.

Integrated Senior Wellness Hub – Patina Wellness
Patina Wellness is a strategic joint venture, co-developed and co-operated with Utopia Limited (“Utopia”). The strategic cooperation with Utopia leverages on Utopia team’s experience on property project development and hospitality services, enabling the Group to expand its operation in the multifaceted upscale community for the elderly.

Patina Wellness, with a total floor area of approximately 84,000 square feet, is located at 18 Junction Road, Kowloon City, Hong Kong and aims at serving various needs of the elderly by integrating serviced apartment for the elderly, residential care for the elderly, medical, nursing, rehabilitation, dining, housekeeping as well as leisure, recreational and community services under the same roof. The feedback from the market is very positive and the serviced apartments of Patina Wellness has reached a double-digit occupancy rate within several months since its commencement in June 2018.

In addition to the serviced apartments for the elderly, other elements of the Integrated Senior Wellness Hub include a care and attention home, a multidisciplinary medical clinic, a rehabilitation centre, and a health-focused restaurant. Renovation of these facilities is currently underway. It is expected that the operations will commence in the first half of 2019.

Mr. YIM Ting Kwok, Chairman and Executive Director of Pine Care Group, said, “Looking ahead, we are extremely confident on the long-term prospects of our new projects as we expect the trend of increasing market demand for quality elderly care services to continue. The Group will focus on cultivating our upscale market segment and improving our service quality so as to establish our market leadership position in the burgeoning upscale market segment. We will continue to uphold the guiding principle of “respecting the elderly residents like our families” to provide quality service for the elderly as well as to enhance returns for our shareholders and investors.”

About Pine Care Group Limited
Pine Care Group is the leading operator of care and attention homes for the elderly in Hong Kong, providing comprehensive residential care services for the elderly. The Group owns a network of care and attention homes across various districts in Hong Kong under the brand name of “Pine Care Group”. Pine Care Group was listed on the Main Board of The Hong Kong Stock Exchange in February 2017, with stock code 1989.