TREASURY HIGHLIGHTS

Bank Facilities and Available Funds

Amount available for drawdown ($m)

7,166

Amount utilised for loans ($m)

5,008

Balance unutilised ($m)

2,158

Bank/cash balances and fixed deposits ($m)

879

Total unutilised facilities and funds available for use ($m)

3,037
Capital Market Capacity

Debt programmes in place ($m)

6,795

Debt securities issued ($m) (net of debt securities repurchased)

4,052

Unused Capital Market Capacity ($m)

2,743
Average Cost of Borrowings (%)

AUD

7.7

GBP

7.0

HKD

7.5

SGD

4.2

USD

7.0

YEN

1.0
Interest Cover Ratio

Net profit before interest & tax ($m)

685

Net interest expense ($m)

370

Interest cover ratio (times)

1.85
Interest Service Ratio

Operating cash surplus before interest & tax ($m)

1,022

Net interest paid ($m)

381

Interest service ratio (times)

2.68
Secured Debt Ratio

Total secured debt ($m)

3,285

Percentage of secured debt

36%
Debt/Equity Ratio

Total debts ($m)

9,060

Bank/cash balances and fixed deposits ($m)

879

Total equity ($m)

8,880

Debt equity ratio (net of bank/cash balances and fixed deposits)

0.92

MANAGEMENT AND SOURCING OF FUNDS

The Group actively manages its cashflow, debt maturity profile and the availability of funding to ensure all refinancing and funding needs are met. As part of the liquidity management, the Group aims to maintain available bank facilities of at least 25% of net debt level.

The Group's total borrowings was S$9.06 billion as of the end of 2000. This amount represented a 17.9% increase over the previous year. This increase was due to the purchase of Furama Hotel site in Hong Kong, the consolidation of Walker Corporation Limited by Australand Holdings Ltd, purchases of residential land sites and the consolidation of Ascott Limited's group borrowings for the first year since the completion of the Ascott & Somerset merger in November 2000.

SOURCE OF FUNDING

The Group obtains its funding from both financial institutions and the capital markets. In 2000, 45% of the Group's borrowings were funded via the capital markets, with the balance being funded by financial institutions.

Bank lines for the Group as of 31 December 2000 totalled approximately S$7.17 billion. S$2.16 billion of these lines remained undrawn at the end of 2000.