A-REIT – BT

A-Reit Q2 net property income up 7.9%

Distributable income climbs 14.1% to $70.5 million

ASCENDAS Real Estate Investment Trust (A-Reit) yesterday posted net property income of $90.6 million for the second quarter ended Sept 30, up 7.9 per cent from a year ago.

Distributable income climbed 14.1 per cent to $70.5 million, translating to distribution per unit (DPU) of 3.38 cents, a 2.4 per cent increase over the 3.30 cents posted a year ago.

For the half-year ended Sept 30, A-Reit’s net property income rose 4.7 per cent from a year ago to $179.3 million.

Distributable income grew 9.2 per cent to $136.4 million.

The half-year DPU stood at 6.58 cents – 1.3 per cent less than the 6.67 cents a year ago.

Adjusting for new units issued, the proforma DPU last year would have been 6.03 cents, leading to a 9.1 per cent gain.

As at Sept 30, A-Reit’s portfolio comprised 94 properties with a total asset value of about $5.7 billion.

Some of its investment highlights include Nordic European Centre, Ascendas Z-Link in Beijing, China (its maiden acquisition of a business park facility in the region), and the forward purchase of a business park property in Jinqiao, China, totalling $301.0 million.

A-Reit’s portfolio occupancy improved to 96.4 per cent of the portfolio, and 93.0 per cent for the multi-tenanted buildings from 96.2 per cent and 92.5 per cent in the previous quarter respectively.

It also enjoyed positive rental reversions of between 1.8 per cent and 11.6 per cent across all segments of its portfolio, the company said.

Within its portfolio, tenants from the electronics sector account for about 11.9 per cent of A-Reit’s portfolio gross revenue.

In terms of leases, 48 per cent are long-term versus 52 per cent short-term by asset value, with a weighted average lease to expiry of about 4.3 years.

A-Reit’s aggregate leverage ratio as at Sept 30 was 31.5 per cent, an improvement over the 34.3 per cent last year.

Even after funding committed investments of about $255 million, debt ratio will hit 34.5 per cent, giving headroom of about $555 million to reach 40 per cent aggregate leverage, the company noted.

A-Reit fell half a cent yesterday to close at $1.995.