Ascott Trust Q1 DPU falls 22% on rights issue dilution

ASCOTT Residence Trust (ART) posted a 22 per cent year-on-year drop in distribution per unit to 1.75 cents for the first quarter of this year due to dilution from shares issued following a one-for-five rights issue last December, as well as the Q1 2013 figure being boosted by an $8.1 million one-off foreign exchange gain.

The forex gain arose from the repayment of foreign currency bank loans using the proceeds from an equity placement exercise in February 2013, before the trust deployed the proceeds to fund acquisitions.

Adjusting the Q1 2013 DPU for the rights issue and excluding the forex gain, the latest DPU was up 5 per cent year-on-year.