Higher rents lift Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust's Q4 DPU by 9.8%

HIGHER rents gave a boost to fourth-quarter distribution per unit (DPU) for Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust (MGCCT), which owns a mall in Hong Kong and an office building in Beijing.

Available DPU rose 9.8 per cent from the previous year to 1.742 Singapore cents for the three months ended March 31, the trust said in a Singapore Exchange filing on Thursday.

This was on the back of a 19.6 per cent climb in net property income to S$62.3 million in the same period.

The trust said in a statement that as at end-March 2015, all retail leases at its Festival Walk shopping mall in Hong Kong expiring in financial year 2014 or 2015 had been renewed or re-let with an aggregate 22 per cent rental uplift.

For its Gateway Plaza building in Beijing, about 98.7 per cent of the leases expiring in FY2014 or FY2015 were committed and renewed or re-let at an aggregate rental uplift of 30 per cent, it added.

The trust added that its assets have been valued at S$5.3 billion as at March 31 this year, an increase from S$4.7 billion as at the same time last year.

Unitholders can expect to receive the distribution for the period from Oct 1 to March 31 on May 25.

MGCCT units rose half a cent to end at S$1.07 on Thursday before its results were released.