SINGAPORE (Jan 22): The trustee-manager of Keppel Infrastructure Trust (KIT) has reported a Distribution per Unit (DPU) of 0.93 cent for the 4Q18 ended Dec 31 2018, unchanged from the same quarter a year ago.
This also brings total DPU to 3.72 cents for FY18, also unchanged from a year ago, and translates to a yield of 7.7%.
Group revenue for 4Q18 was $172.2 million, bringing total revenue recognised in FY18 to $637.4 million, 0.8% higher than FY17.
At City Gas, revenue of $91.4 million in 4Q18 and $347.6 million in FY18, were higher than the corresponding periods in the previous year, due to higher town gas tariff as a result of higher fuel prices. City Gas achieved 100% plant availability during the period.
The concessions, comprising Senoko WTE, Tuas WTE, SingSpring Desalination and Ulu Pandan NEWater plants, contributed revenue of $23.4 million in 4Q18 and $93.5 million in FY18, comparable to the corresponding periods last year.
Basslink’s 4Q18 revenue of A$24.7 million ($24.6 million), higher than the A$19.6 million in 4Q17 while FY18 revenue of A$66.4 million was lower than FY17 revenue of A$80.5 million.
This was due to the service outage that occurred from March 25 to June 5 2018 as a result of an incident caused by a third party contractor, impacting the cumulative availability. The higher 4Q18 revenue was due to timing of this cumulative availability adjustment, while the incident resulted in lower overall fees during the year.
Revenue from Keppel Merlimau Cogen was $32.8 million and $129.1 million for 4Q18 and FY18 respectively, comparable to last year.
CityNet contributed revenue of $1.2 million in FY17. There was no contribution this year as CityNet ceased to be the trustee-manager of Netlink Trust with effect from April 13 2017.
Profit attributable to unitholders in 4Q18 was $10.8 million higher than 4Q17 mainly due to higher contributions from Basslink.
For FY18, the group recorded lower profit attributable to unitholders compared to FY2017, mainly due to lower contribution from City Gas due to the time lag in the adjustment of gas tariffs to reflect actual fuel cost, lower revenue at Basslink as a result of the March 2018 service outage and higher fair value loss of derivative financial instruments recognised.
FY18 distributable cash flows of $141.2 million were $3.0 million lower than FY17 mainly due to lower contributions from City Gas.
Net asset value per unit as at Dec 31 2018 decreased to 27.3 cents from 29.9 cents as at 31 December 31 2017 primarily attributable to distributions to unitholders but partially offset by marked-to-market movements of derivative financial instruments and profit recognised for the period.
Gearing as at Dec 31 2018 was 40.6% compared to 39.9% as at Dec 31 2017.
On Nov 15 2018, KIT announced the proposed DPU-yield accretive acquisition of Ixom Holdco, a leading industrial infrastructure business in Australia and New Zealand, supplying and distributing key water treatment chemicals, as well as industrial and specialty chemicals.
Keppel Infrastructure Fund Management says the strategic addition of Ixom will strengthen KIT’s overall portfolio, and increase AUM to $5.1 billion, as well as provide KIT with sustainable cash flows and stable distributions to unitholders over the long term.
Units in Keppel Infrastructure Trust closed 6 cents lower at 52 cents compared to 58 cents on Jan 23 2018.
