SINGAPORE (Oct 24): Suntec Real Estate Investment Trust (Suntec REIT) reported a 3Q18 DPU of 2.491 cents, 0.3% higher compared to the DPU of 2.483 cents in 3Q17.
Distributable income was 1.0% higher at $66.5 million from $65.9 million.
This brings 9M18 DPU to 7.398 cents, marginally lower than 7.401 cents in 9M17.
During the quarter, gross revenue was 2.5% lower at $88.8 million from $91.1 million last year. The decrease was mainly due to lower revenue from 177 Pacific Highway as a result of the weakened AUD, partially offset by higher revenue from Suntec Singapore.
Revenue from Suntec City saw a 1.9% y-o-y increase, as the increase in retail revenue was negated by lower office revenue, primarily due to transitory downtime from replacement office leases which will commence operations by end 2018 and negative rental reversion.
Property expenses increased 18.3% y-o-y to $32.3 million, bringing net property income for 3Q18 too $56.5 million, 11.4% lower than $63.9 million in 3Q17.
Finance income increased by 38.4% to $6.74 million from $4.87 million.
As at Sept 31, the REIT’s cash and cash equivalents stood at $133.1 million.
Chan Kong Leong, CEO of the manager says, “The multipronged strategy that we have executed for Suntec City mall had yielded positive results and the mall is poised to continue to perform well, notwithstanding the continuing challenges in the retail sector.”
“We will continue to curate exciting offerings to strengthen Suntec City’s ecosystem and deliver greater value to our shoppers,” adds Chan.
Units in Suntec REIT last traded 2 cents lower at $1.81.
