CDLHTrust – BT

CDL Hospitality Trusts’ Q2 earnings beat forecasts

Income available for distribution to holders of stapled securities is $14.8m

CDL Hospitality Trusts (CDL HT) has reported better-than-projected earnings for the second quarter. CDL HT – a stapled group comprising CDL Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust (H-Reit) and CDL Hospitality Business Trust – said yesterday its income available for distribution to holders of stapled securities amounted to $14.8 million, from April to June this year. That’s 52 per cent higher than the $9.8 million which it projected, in its initial public offering (IPO), that it would earn during the three-month period.

Second-quarter gross revenue was $20.7 million, 48 per cent higher than projected. Its net property income totalled $19.5 million, 52 per cent higher than forecast, and its net income amounted to $18.0 million, more than double the $8.7 million expected.

Its income available for distribution per stapled security came to 2.11 cents for the period – and 8.46 cents on an annualised basis. The total number of stapled securities was 702.4 million. Its annualised distribution yield was 10.19 per cent, based on its IPO price of 83 cents, and 3.69 per cent, based on its closing market price of $2.29 on Monday.

For the entire half-year period from January to June this year, CDL HT reported income available for distribution to holders of stapled securities of $27.1 million – some 40 per cent more than projected. Its revenue was $38.7 million, 38.8 per cent more than IPO projections.

CDL HT listed on the Singapore Exchange on July 19. It now owns five hotels and one shopping arcade in Singapore – Orchard Hotel, Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, M Hotel, Copthorne King’s Hotel, Orchard Hotel Shopping Arcade and Novotel Clarke Quay – as well as one hotel in New Zealand, the Rendezvous Hotel Auckland.

The trust also said it had benefited from the positive growth of the tourism and the hotel sector. Its average occupancy rate in the January-June half was 84.4 per cent, against an indicative 78.6 per cent. Its average daily room rate was $193 for the six months, against an indicative $160.

‘CDL HT has grown and performed very well in the last six months,’ said Vincent Yeo, CEO of M&C Reit Management Limited, manager of H-Reit. ‘As Singapore’s largest hotel operator by number of rooms, we are well-positioned to capitalise on the current growth in the tourism and hotel sectors. In addition to the strong organic growth inherent in our portfolio, we will continue to seek yield-accretive acquisition opportunities to deliver higher returns to our security holders.’