CapitaLand Retail China Trust Q1 DPU up 1.1%

CAPITALAND Retail China Trust (CRCT) announced on Friday that its distribution per unit (DPU) for its first quarter ended March 31 was 2.74 Singapore cents, up 1.1 per cent from a year ago.

Net property income was up 9.8 per cent to S$40.3 million, while income available for distribution increased 5 per cent to S$24.36 million.

Gross revenue went up by 13.4 per cent to 290.87 million yuan, mainly due to the new contribution from CapitaMall Xinnan which was acquired on Sept 30, 2016. In Singapore dollar terms, gross revenue for Q1 2017 increased by S$4.5 million, or 8.2 per cent. The increase is lower than that in yuan terms due to a weaker yuan against the Singapore dollar.

As at March 31, CRCT's portfolio occupancy was 96.2 per cent, an improvement over the 95.9 per cent at the end of last quarter.

Tan Tze Wooi, CEO of CapitaLand Retail China Trust Management, the manager of CRCT, said: "Looking ahead, we will continue to optimise the retail mix in our malls and strengthen their appeal so as to further enhance unitholders' value."