CapitaLand Ascendas REIT (CLAR) A17U has posted distribution per unit (DPU) of 15.160 cents for FY2023, 4.0% lower y-o-y compared to the FY2022 DPU of 15.798 cents, as portfolio occupancy remained high at 94.2%.
The REIT's DPU for 2HFY2023 decreased 6.1% y-o-y to 7.441 cents.
Gross revenue for FY2023 rose by 9.4% y-o-y to $1.48 billion. Net property income (NPI) rose by 5.6% y-o-y to $1.02 billion.
The total amount available for distribution declined by 1.4% y-o-y to $654.4 million mainly due to higher interest expenses as a result of the high interest rate environment.
CLAR completed $724.3 million of acquisitions in 2023. The funds were deployed in three acquisitions in Singapore and one in the UK. A development in Australia was also completed during the year for $161.0 million.
The REIT says its acquisition of high-quality business space, industrial, logistics and data centre properties will contribute to its portfolio diversification and income stream resilience.
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As of Dec 31, 2023, CLAR’s $16.9 billion portfolio had a customer base of some 1,790 tenants. The portfolio is diversified across Singapore (64%), Australia (14%), the US (12%) and the UK/Europe (10%).
CLAR’s 227 investment properties span three key segments: business space and life sciences (46%), industrial and data centres (29%) and logistics (25%).
CLAR achieved positive rental reversion of 13.4% for leases renewed in multi-tenant buildings during 2023.
The portfolio’s weighted average lease expiry (WALE) period stood at 3.9 years and about 14.6% of CLAR’s gross rental income will be due for renewal in FY2024.
As of Dec 31, 2023, aggregate leverage stood at 37.9%, up slightly from from 36.3% at the same time last year.
With 79% of borrowings on fixed rate, CLAR’s weighted average all-in cost of borrowing increased to 3.5% in FY2023 from 2.5% in FY2022.
William Tay, CEO and executive director of the manager, says: “In FY2023, CLAR’s net property income exceeded S$1 billion for the first time since our IPO in 2002. We managed to achieve this despite the difficult and uncertain economic environment. We will build on our strong fundamentals and continue to maintain and improve CLAR’s portfolio.”
Units in CLAR closed 8 cents lower or 2.74% down at $2.84 on Feb 1.
