PLife – BT
Parkway Life’s maiden results beat forecasts
It reports $13.6m distributable income for Aug23-Dec31, 2007 period
PARKWAY Life Reit has beaten forecasts in its maiden results.
It reported a distributable income of $13.64 million for the period between Aug 23, when it was listed, and Dec 31, 2007. This was 5.81 per cent better than its projection of $12.89 million. This led to a distribution per unit (DPU) of 2.27 cents, higher than the forecast 2.14 cents.
Riding on the momentum, the Reit’s manager expects to do better than its forecast for FY2008.
‘We’ve got a (yield) forecast in the IPO, which is 4.9 per cent,’ said Justine Wingrove, CEO of the Reit’s manager, Parkway Trust Management. ‘I think it’s fair to say we’re likely to go in excess of that, but I obviously can’t say too much.’
Parkway Life Reit holds the Mount Elizabeth, Gleneagles and East Shore hospitals under its asset portfolio. Independent valuer DTZ Debenham Tie Leung recently valued the portfolio, which includes 68 medical offices and retail units and 559 parking lots, at $831.5 million. This is 7.3 per cent higher than the appraised value of some $775 million in July last year.
Gross revenue was $16.9 million, 5 per cent higher than the forecast of $16.09 million. This was because the actual adjusted hospital revenue for the period was higher than the minimum rent assumed in the forecast. The increase in adjusted hospital revenue was largely driven by a rise in foreign patient revenue, higher consumption of diagnostic outpatient services and contribution from Parkway Cancer Centre.
The biggest rental contribution came from Mount Elizabeth Hospital, which accounted for $10.6 million. Gleneagles Hospital raked in $5.5 million, while the balance came from East Shore Hospital.
The Reit manager is targeting acquisitions in Singapore, China, India, Japan, Malaysia and Thailand to grow its portfolio. Some of the property types it is pursuing include warehousing facilities for pharmaceutical companies, nursing homes, hospitals and medical offices. It does not rule out development projects as well, but will cap them at 10 per cent of its asset base. Immediate acquisition targets are unlikely to come from Parkway Holdings, said Ms Wingrove.
‘I think with Parkway, it’s just there for us,’ she said. ‘And so, yes we are looking at it . . . but we need to take advantage of third-party acquisitions if there’s an opportunity, because we don’t have an automatic right for those.’
When asked by the media on what she thought of Parkway Holdings’ recent record bid for a hospital site at Novena, Ms Wingrove said she believes that Parkway Holdings did a lot of analysis before submitting the bid for $1,600 per square foot per plot ratio.
As a Reit manager, Parkway Trust would look at the Novena property at a later date before deciding on the appropriate course of action.
Net asset value per unit came to $1.36. Parkway Life Reit has also attained a ‘BBB+’ credit rating by Fitch Ratings. The counter last traded at $1.20.