KGT – BT

K-Green Trust’s Q3 earnings down 14% to $3.8m

K-GREEN Trust reported third quarter earnings of $3.8 million, down 14 per cent from $4.4 million in the same quarter last year.

Third quarter revenue likewise fell 5.8 per cent to $24.6 million from $26.1 million.

For the nine months ended Sept 30, 2011, Singapore’s only listed green infrastructure trust recorded profit after tax of $11.7 million, 14.6 per cent higher than the $10.2 million projected.

Turnover for the period was $69.7 million, beating projections of $57.5 million by 19.5 per cent.

The group said comparing nine-month 2011 statements with the previous corresponding period was ‘not meaningful’ because K-Green Trust only owned one of the current three plants in its portfolio for the full nine-month period in 2010.

The Senoko waste-to-energy plant was acquired on Aug 31, 2009. However, the Tuas waste-to-energy plant and Ulu Pandan NEWater plant only started contributing to K-Green’s financials after they were acquired on June 29, 2010, the day when the business trust was listed.

Earnings per unit for the third quarter was 0.6 cents, down from 0.7 cents last year.

The group’s assets totalled $714.2 million as at end-September 2011, $47.7 million lower than at the previous year’s end. Net asset value per unit for the quarter decreased to $1.10 from $1.16.

The group had no external borrowings as at Sept 30, 2011.

K-Green said its three assets’ income comes from capacity payments that offer ‘stable source of income with little correlation to economic or demographic fluctuations’.

It is still interested in acquiring more assets, and highlighted four plants to which it has rights of first refusal.

Three are district cooling plants in Singapore located in Biopolis, Changi Business Park and Woodlands Wafer Fab Park.

The other is a Sweden-based waste-to-energy plant that is 22 per cent owned by Keppel Seghers.

K-Green Trust closed unchanged at 90 cents yesterday.