Frasers Centrepoint Trust (FCT) has reported that 53.6% of its net lettable area (NLA) has been allocated to essential services such as supermarkets and hypermarkets as well as beauty and health in its 1Q business update.
According to the FCT annual report 2020, the trust is among the largest suburban retail mall owners in Singapore with a total of 10.2% NLA, just behind CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust (CICT)’s 10.7%.
In 1QFY2021 ended December, FCT’s performance remained “resilient” with its retail portfolio occupancy stable at 96.4%.
Shopper traffic remains between 60% to 70% of pre-Covid-19 levels amid safe distancing and mall capacity control measures.
In 1QFY2021, FCT renewed nearly a quarter of expiring leases due FY2021.
As at Dec 31, 2020, FCT’s gearing ratio stood at 37.7%, 1.8 percentage points higher than the 35.9% as at Sept 30, 2020.
FCT’s weighted average lease expiry (WALE) as at Dec 31, 2020, stood at 1.54 years by NLA and 1.50 years by gross rental income (GRI).
“We expect stable suburban retail sales and shopper visitation as long as the Covid-19 situation remains under control in Singapore. The easing of measures in Phase 3 (e.g. increase in mall capacity and dining group size) is expected to be positive for retail performance,” says the manager.
Units in FCT closed 2 cents lower or 0.8% down at $2.61 on Jan 21.
