SINGAPORE (Apr 24): For the 4QFY2019/2020 ended March 31, Mapletree Commercial Trust (MCT) slashed its DPU by 60.6% y-o-y to 0.91 cent. Although MCT’s distributable amount in 4QFY2019/2020 rose 10.5% y-o-y, $43.7 million was retained to claim capital allowance and for capital distribution retention, its manager says, causing distributable income to decline 55% y-o-y in the REIT’s fourth quarter, to $30.1 million.
At Vivocity, MCT’s flagship property, full-year shopper traffic and tenant sales dipped by 6.8% and 3.4% respectively, largely due to the impact of Covid-19 in the fourth quarter. Gross revenue and net property income also contracted 16.9% y-o-y and 20.5% y-o-y respectively mainly due to rental rebates granted to eligible retail tenants impacted by Covid-19. For FY2019/2020, DPU fell by 12.5% to 8 cents, translating into a historical yield of 4.5%.
Interestingly, Vivocity’s valuation eked out a gain of 1.9% y-o-y to $3.262 billion, indicating that so far, Covid-19’s impact is operational, as properties retain most of their value.
Among the REITs, Keppel DC REIT outperformed. Its DPU for the 1QFY2020 ended March rose 8.6% y-o-y. Since most of its leas-es are on double and triple net leases, and its data centres remain in demand, investors continue to ascribe a hefty premium to its NAV per share of $1.15.
