Croesus Retail Trust's Q4 FY2015 DPU up 1%

CROESUS Retail Trust (CRT), the Asia-Pacific's first retail business trust, on Wednesday posted a one per cent year-on-year increase in distribution per unit (DPU) for the fourth quarter to 2.02 Singapore cents, lifted by foreign-exchange gains and lower administrative expenses.

Income available for distribution for the three months ended June 30, 2015, rose 23.9 per cent to 876.7 million yen (S$10.4 million). Gross revenue rose 25.5 per cent to 1.99 billion yen, mainly due to the acquisition of One's Mall in October 2014 and tenants' renewal exercise at Mallage Shobu.

Net property income for Q4 grew 18.2 per cent to 1.21 billion yen.

For the full year ended June 2015, DPU was up 2.8 per cent year on year to 8.08 Singapore cents. This translates to income available for distribution of 3.36 billion yen, up 20.7 per cent.

CRT recorded gross revenue of 7.64 billion yen in FY2015, up 39.3 per cent, due mainly to three properties in Japan in 2014.

As at end-June, the company's portfolio comprises seven retail properties in Japan.

In its outlook, CRT said Japan's economy has been slowing and that the Bank of Japan had announced further quantitative-easing policies in late 2014, which has weakened the yen.

"This would also lead to further accelerated rise in real estate prices in Japan. The aggregate value of CRT's seven properties increased 7.9 per cent as compared to prior valuation," said the company.

It said it receives its distributable income in yen but pays out in Sing dollars so it has hedged close to 100 per cent of the distribution up to December 2016 to minimise exposure to fluctuations in exchange rates.

CRT added that its properties "are expected to continue generating robust and stable cash flows in the next reporting period and in the next 12 months".