Higher rents and a new acquisition helped Frasers Centrepoint Trust (FCT) post healthier third-quarter earnings yesterday.
The trust, which owns six shopping malls, posted a distribution per unit (DPU) of 3.022 cents for the three months to June 30, up 6 per cent from a year earlier.
Of this, 0.626 cents per unit will be paid to unitholders on Aug 29, while 2.396 cents per unit were distributed last Thursday.
Distributable income for the quarter rose 1.3 per cent from the year before to $23.4 million.
Net property income was up 2.4 per cent to $29.1 million and gross revenue increased 3.1 per cent to $41.2 million.
The growth was mainly due to higher rents from renewed leases, which were 7.8 per cent higher than rental agreements inked three years ago, said the trust's manager, Frasers Centrepoint Asset Management.
This was despite a dip in rental reversions at Bedok Point, which were 3 per cent lower than contracts secured three years earlier.
However, the Changi City Point mall, in Changi Business Park, added $1.02 million to the firm's revenue and $660,000 to net property income for the quarter ended June 30, since it was acquired on June 16.
The acquisition also grew the trust's total assets by 14.7 per cent to $2.45 billion.
"The addition of Changi City Point strengthens FCT's presence in the suburban retail market here and it is DPU-accretive," said Dr Chew Tuan Chiong, chief executive of the manager.
Occupancy rate of its properties as at March 31 was 98.5 per cent, up from the 96.8 per cent recorded at the end of the preceding quarter.
Occupancy at Bedok Point, which was undergoing fitting-out works, rose to 99.3 per cent from 77 per cent in the preceding quarter after new tenants such as Harvey Norman opened at the mall.
Overall traffic at all its malls, excluding Changi City Point, improved 2.7 per cent to 20.94 million shoppers in the same period, driven mainly by the Causeway Point mall in Woodlands. It is expected to reach 23.7 million, if Changi City Point is included.
Earnings per unit for the three months to June 30 was 2.62 cents, down from 3.08 cents the same period a year ago, while net asset value per unit as at June 30 was $1.78, inching up from $1.77 as at Sept 30.
Its units rose a cent to close at $1.965 yesterday.
This article was first published on July 23, 2014.
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