a-iTrust – BT

Ascendas India Trust’s Q1 DPU rises 25%

ASCENDAS India Trust (A-iTrust) is making a distribution per unit (DPU) of 2.06 cents for its first financial quarter ended June 30, 2009, up 25 per cent from the same quarter last year, said Ascendas Property Fund Trustee Pte Ltd, the trustee-manager of the Reit.

Cash generation remains strong, with distributable income at at $15.7 million for the latest quarter, registering a growth of 26 per cent from a year ago, it said.

Total property income for the quarter was $29.7 million, an increase of 4 per cent, while net property income was $18.3 million or 15 per cent higher.

The DPU of 2.06 cents for Q1 2009 represents an annualised yield of 12 per cent and 9.8 per cent respectively over the closing prices of $0.69 and $0.84 per unit on June 30 and July 29, 2009.

Gearing remained low at 9 per cent as at June 30, 2009.

‘The strong cash generation this quarter was made possible by the steady demand for space in our properties, as demonstrated by continued high portfolio occupancy of 97 per cent as at 30 June 2009,’ said Jonathan Yap, chief executive officer of the trustee-manager.

A-iTrust’s portfolio of 4.8 million sq ft of completed space is fairly evenly distributed among Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.

The properties house 246 tenants operating in IT sub-sectors such as software development, business process off-shoring, research and development, and data centres.

Occupancy rate for the portfolio was 97 per cent as at June 30, 2009. During the quarter, only about 2 per cent of the portfolio’s leases expired, out of which half has been successfully renewed. About 10 per cent of space is due for renewal in the current financial year.

The Reit said that it aims to renew or replace expiring leases in advance. The strategy is to seek a balance between maximising lease renewals so as to lower leasing costs and enhancing tenancy quality and diversification by introducing new tenants.