KEPPEL Infrastructure Trust : A7RU 0% (KIT) almost doubled its distributable income over the first nine months of 2023, and will be paying a special distribution to unitholders, said its manager on Thursday (Nov 2).

The company’s distributable income rose 93.2 per cent to S$266.1 million over the first nine months of 2023, compared to the same period the year before, supported by new acquisitions and successful value-creation strategy, said its manager in a bourse filing.

Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) went up 28.1 per cent over the corresponding nine-month period in the year before.

Higher ebitda growth in its industrial-infrastructure business Ixom and piped-gas provider City Energy led to capital optimisation of S$273 million. Of that sum, S$142 million was used to partially fund the acquisitions of the previous financial year.

The remaining S$131 million will be paid out as a special distribution to unitholders, at 2.33 cents per unit. The total distribution per unit over the first nine months of 2023 is 5.23 cents per unit, an increase of 82.5 per cent from a year ago.

Without the special distributions, Keppel Infrastructure’s DPU would have increased by 1.2 per cent to 0.97 cents, bringing the total for the nine-month period to 2.9 cents.

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Keppel Infrastructure’s portfolio asset distributable income grew 14.7 per cent year on year to S$210.3 million, from its ongoing business operations over the first nine months of 2023.

This was supported by higher contributions from City Energy and the new acquisitions completed last year, which contributed 31.9 per cent of asset distributable income for the reporting period.

Among its various business segments, energy transition had the best performance. Its distributable income grew by 64 per cent to S$107 million for the first nine months of 2023, compared with the same period last year.

Environmental services’ distributable income grew 3 per cent to S$57.7 million, while that for distribution and storage fell 26.6 per cent to S$45.6 million.

The manager said KIT continued to deliver high availability and strong operational performance across its businesses and assets. It was also largely insulated from higher energy prices and inflation.

Units of Keppel Infrastructure Trust rose 1.2 per cent or S$0.005 to close at S$0.44 on Thursday.