SINGAPORE (Oct 24): The trustee-manager of Ascendas India Trust (a-iTrust) has declared a 2Q19 DPU of 1.98 cents, 32% higher than a year ago despite the depreciating Indian Rupee.
The higher DPU was mainly due to incremental income contributions from the acquisitions of BlueRidge 2 and Arshiya warehouses, the Atria building, higher interest income from investments in AURUM IT SEZ, aVance 5 & 6 and aVance A1 & A2 via construction funding and positive rental reversions, along with a one-off gain from the scrap sale of the Dedicated Power Plant at ITPB.
Ascendas India Trust to acquire two buildings in Navi Mumbai for $186 mil
As at Sept 30, a-iTrust’s committed portfolio occupancy remained robust at 97% while gearing ratio was 32%.
Based on its current gearing limit of 45%, the trust has total debt headroom of $477 million. Out of the Trust’s total borrowings, 84% are effectively on a fixed-interest rate basis and 62% were hedged into Indian Rupees.
In July, a-iTrust entered into a forward purchase agreement to acquire two buildings, aVance A1 & A2, with total leasable area of 1.9 million sf in aVance Business Hub 2 in Hyderabad.
This follows its signing of a master agreement in May with the vendor to acquire five buildings in aVance Business Hub 2, a Special Economic Zone adjacent to aVance Business Hub.
a-iTrust has also received in-principle approval to redevelop The V. This planned redevelopment will increase leasable area by 3.5 million sf over the next seven to 10 years.
Phase I of the redevelopment entails constructing a new building with a total floor area of 1.4 million sf to replace the existing Auriga building and the auditorium and is expected to be completed by the second half of 2021.
In Bangalore, construction of a new 0.5 million sf building is underway, and is expected to complete by the first half of 2019. A second building with total floor area of 0.7 million square feet is being planned.
Year to date, units of a-iTrust have fallen 7% to close at $1.06 on Wednesday.
