Croesus Retail Trust's Q3 DPU up 8% at 1.9 cents

CROESUS Retail Trust, a property trust focused on Japanese malls, on Thursday reported a distribution per unit (DPU) of 1.9 Singapore cents for its third quarter ended March 31, 2015, an 8 per cent increase from the 1.76 Singapore cent DPU recorded in the corresponding period last year, and a 2.7 per cent increase from its forecast of 1.85 Singapore cents.

The retail Reit, which listed in May 2013, generated a net property income (NPI) of 1.16 billion yen (S$12.89 million), 24.5 per cent higher than the 933.7 million yen in the year-ago period and 43.4 per cent higher than its forecast of 811.1 million yen.

This came on the back of a steep surge in gross revenue, which jumped 42.4 per cent to 1.98 billion yen from 1.39 billion yen in the year-ago period, and 58.2 per cent above the forecast 1.25 billion yen, mainly due to the contributions from Luz Omori and Croesus Tachikawa, which were acquired on March 6, 2014, and One's Mall, which was acquired in Oct 16, 2014.

However, the increase in gross revenue was partially offset by the temporary shop closures at some units of Mallage Shobu during its tenant renewal exercise.

The outlook for Japan's retail industry remains positive with the government's drive to increase inflation to stimate the economy, the Reit said in a note on Thursday.

Looking ahead, the Reit expects to continue to generate robust and stable cash flows in the next reporting period and in the next 12 months.

As at 9.55am on Thursday, the counter was trading up 1.07 per cent at S$0.945.