HWT – BT

Hyflux Water Trust distributable cash jumps 91% in Q1 to $3.4m

HYFLUX Water Trust (HWT), the first pure-play global water business trust listed in Asia, yesterday announced a 91 per cent year-on-year jump in distributable cash to $3.4 million for the first quarter ended March 31.

This translates into available distribution per unit (DPU) of 1.15 cents, which trustee-manager Hyflux Water Trust Management said is in line with HWT’s target DPU of 2.56 cents for the first half of 2009. HWT’s policy is to make distributions to unitholders on a half-yearly basis.

The increase in distributable cash was attributed mainly to newly constructed plants commencing operations and the addition of new Rofoar (right of first offer and refusal) plants acquired.

Total revenue for the three months dipped 2 per cent year-on-year to $14.05 million. This was due to a 30 per cent fall in construction revenue to $8.1 million.

Q1 saw a bottomline profit of $6.3 million, against $1.12 million for the year-ago period. The results included ‘other income’ of $4 million, comprising mainly unrealised foreign exchange gain.

Gary Kee, CEO of the trustee-manager, said: ‘We are pleased that HWT has demonstrated such resilient performance in a very difficult market. This is the result of the strong fundamentals of our business model and our continued proactive asset management to ensure sustainable distribution to unitholders.’

The trustee-manager said that despite the challenging global economic environment, the medium to long-term outlook for the global water sector, particularly in China, should remain strong. The credit facility of US$66 million is also not due for repayment till February 2011.

HWT units closed trading one cent up at 38 cents yesterday.