CDL Hospitality Trusts has reported a distribution per stapled security of 2.04 cents for 1HFY2022, up 67.2% y-o-y, as travel demand resumes.
The distribution will go ex on Aug 5 and be paid on Aug 30.
Net property income improved by 37.8% y-o-y to $51 million; revenue was up 49% over the same period to $98.6 million.
CDLHT’s manager notes that the improvement was more pronounced in 2QFY2022, with net property income up 55.4% y-o-y.
While its Singapore, UK and Maldives properties enjoyed significant improvements, its Australia and New Zealand portfolio suffered a decline.
CDLHT got to bear higher interest costs, up 21.4% y-o-y, or $2 million, due to higher funding costs on its floating rate loans. It incurred higher costs too from additional loans taken to fund the acquisition of Hotel Brooklyn and the UK BTR development project.
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“This recovery is very encouraging given that travel out of China and Japan, traditionally strong outbound markets, still faces constraints,” says Vincent Yeo, CEO of CDLHT’s manager.
“Strong growth has been seen in the leisure and project group market while the recovery in the primary corporate market is more nascent,” he adds.
He notes that across CDLHT’s portfolio, nine of its hotels have seen RevPAR in June 2022 exceeding June 2019 pre-pandemic levels, with the RevPAR for another four portfolio hotels already above 90% of June 2019.
However, Yeo warns that while demand has returned strongly, the industry, as whole, is facing labour and cost pressures.
As at June 30, CDLHT has a gearing of 39.5% and debt headroom of $587.3 million. It holds cash reserves of $98.9 million and $625.8 million worth of credit facilities.
CDLHT closed on July 28 at $1.35, up 2.27%.
