Keppel DC REIT's tenant for its data centres at Guangzhou has not paid its rent for four months and the REIT manager has issued a letter of demand for RMB48.3 million.
According to Keppel DC REIT on Dec 15, the tenant, Guangdong Bluesea Data Development Co leases Guangdong Data Centres 1, 2 & 3.
The tenant is required to pay the rental arrears of RMB45 million as at Dec 15, and recoveries including late payment interests and real estate taxes of RMB3.3 million.
Keppel DC REIT wants the tenant to top up its security deposits of RMB32.2 million too.
According to the REIT, these data centres contributed around 8.5% of its gross revenue for 3QFY2023 ended Sept.
On a full-year basis, if the rent, coupon, and other costs linked to these properties cannot be recovered as at Dec 31, the REIT estimates there will be a 0.655 cents per unit hit on its distribution for its coming FY2023, equal to some 6.4% of its FY2022 DPU.
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The rental arrears issue of this tenant has been flagged by the REIT earlier. While the tenant has been paying up in instalments, it has only so up till October.
"The manager continues to explore all options to seek full recourse against the tenant for its breach of the lease agreements and framework agreement," says the REIT manager.
