Ascendas India Trust Q1 net property income up 4%

ASCENDAS India Trust (a-iTrust) reported a 4 per cent increase in net property income for its first quarter ended March 2022 on the back of higher total property income.

The manager of a-iTrust said in a business update on Monday (Apr 25) that net property income rose to S$40 million for the 3-month period, up from S$38.4 million a year ago.

Total property income rose 6 per cent on year in the first quarter of FY22, climbing to S$49.7 million from S$47.1 million.

The increase was due to income contribution from aVance 6 in Hyderabad and Building Q1, Aurum Q Parc which were acquired in March and November 2021 respectively, as well as from higher utilities income.

The manager said physical park population has “increased significantly”, ranging from 15 to 30 per cent, compared to less than 5 per cent for most of last year.

It noted that they leased and renewed 0.5 million sq ft of leasable area across the portfolio during the first quarter of FY2022. The trust had a committed portfolio occupancy of 87 per cent as at Mar 31.

In terms of outlook, a-iTrust’s manager said it is seeing recovery in the leasing environment and expects leasing activity to pick up further in 2022. 

It added that IT spending in India is increasing, and IT service companies have reported strong earnings and robust hiring plans.

“a-iTrust will continue its diversification into new economy asset classes to further strengthen portfolio resilience and performance,” the manager said. “We remain confident in the demand for our IT Parks asset class and growth in logistics/industrial/data centres.”

Units of a-iTrust fell 1.5 per cent or S$0.02 to close at S$1.28 on Monday before the business update.