CMT – BT

CapitaMall's Q1 DPU inches up on flat revenue

CAPITAMALL Trust (CMT), which counts Raffles City, Bugis Junction and new mall JCube, among others in its portfolio, saw its distribution per unit (DPU) in the first quarter edge up to 2.30 cents from 2.29 cents the year before.

This works out to an annualised distribution yield of 5.04 per cent, based on CMT's closing price of $1.835 per unit on April 17.

CapitaMall Trust Management (CMTM), CMT's manager, said the books closure date will be on April 26, and unitholders can expect to receive their Q1 2012 DPU on May 30.

CMT's net property income has risen to $108.33 million for the first quarter ended March 31, 2012, up 2.5 per cent from the year-ago period.

Gross revenue inched up 0.8 per cent year-on-year to $155.24 million, helped by higher rental rates achieved from new and renewed leases. CMT said that excluding the Atrium@Orchard, which is undergoing asset enhancement works, its gross revenue would have grown 3.6 per cent year-on-year.

CMT's distributable income to unitholders was $76.61 million, an increase of 4.6 per cent from the same period last year.

Property operating expenses – an area of concern in Q4 last year – fell to $46.9 million in Q1 2012 from $59.1 million in Q4 last year.

The trust said its strong foundation would enable it to ride out potential economic uncertainties, partly because of the large and diversified tenant base of its portfolio, which give stability and sustainability to the malls' occupancy rates and rental revenues.

Said James Koh, chairman of CMTM: "We expect our city malls located in the downtown core of Singapore to continue to do well this year as the Singapore Tourism Board has forecast 13.5 to 14.5 million tourist arrivals for 2012."

In a separate announcement yesterday, CMT said its Bugis+ mall – formerly known as Iluma – is undergoing a $38 million transformation due to be completed in July this year.

CMT said over 80 per cent of Bugis+ has been pre-committed. The revamped mall will boast more than 30 new brands, including Japanese clothing chain Uniqlo and fast-food franchise BonChon Chicken.

CMT shares ended yesterday up half a cent at $1.84.