SINGAPORE (Aug 18): The trustee-manager of Croesus Retail Trust (CRT) has announced a distribution per unit (DPU) of 2.01 cents for the 4Q17 ended June.
This represents an 18.2% increase from the restated DPU of 1.70 cents achieved in 4Q16 and brings 2H17 DPU to a total of 4.06 cents.
For 4Q17, CRT reported gross revenue of nearly JPY3 billion, an increase of 11.9% from JPY2.7 billion recorded in 4Q16.
Croesus Retail Asset Management says the increase was due mainly to the acquisition of Fuji Grand Natalie in April 2016 and Mallage Saga and Feeeal Asahikawa in May 2016.
In addition, higher variable rent from better tenant sales in Mallage Shobu and a strong performance by the cinema in Torius also contributed to the gross revenue increase.
CRT’s NPI for the quarter was JPY1.4 billion, comparable to the previous corresponding quarter.
Income available for distribution rose 19.0% to JPY1.3 billion in 4Q17 from JPY1.1 billion in 4Q16.
Cost savings arising from the internalisation of the trustee-manager, lower finance cost from redemption of Series 001 notes and realised gain on disposal of units of CRT by the trustee-manager contributed towards the increase.
For FY17, CRT posted DPU of 7.66 cents, which is 12.2% higher than the restated DPU for FY16 of 6.83 cents.
To mitigate its foreign currency exposure, CRT has hedged close to 100% of its expected distributable income up to June 2019.
At present, CRT’s portfolio continues to demonstrate stability and resiliency with a high occupancy rate of 97.1% and a long weighted average lease expiry of 6.4 years.
Jim Chang, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the trustee-manager, says, “We are pleased to deliver a set of stable financial results for 4Q FY2017 and FY2017. We will continue to explore ways to achieve incremental returns as well as executing our planned asset enhancement initiatives and further refresh our tenant mix at our malls in the coming quarters.”
Units in CRT closed at $1.20 on Thursday.
