OUE H-Trust Q4 DPU up 6.6%

OUE Hospitality Trust's (OUE H-Trust) fourth-quarter distributable income rose 7.5 per cent on the back of better per-unit revenues in its hotel and mall assets.

Income available for distribution rose to S$23.6 million in the quarter ended Dec 31, about 1.3 per cent more than the trust's own forecast. Distribution per unit increased by 6.6 per cent to 1.78 Singapore cents.

Shares of OUE H-Trust gained 1.1 per cent, or one Singapore cent, to close at 93.5 Singapore cents on Tuesday before the results were announced. OUE H-Trust is a stapled trust comprising OUE Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust and OUE Hospitality Business Trust, which together own and run the Mandarin Orchard Singapore Hotel and Mandarin Gallery mall.

For the full year, income available for distribution was S$89 million. The 2013 full-year comparison is not meaningful because the trust only listed in the middle of 2013.

The trust said that tourist arrivals in 2015 could remain soft with recent plane crashes affecting air travel and a lack of major convention events. But the trust expects its Mandarin assets' prime location along Orchard Road to confer some resilience.