Keppel Infrastructure Trust Q3 DPU stable at 0.93 Singapore cent

KEPPEL Infrastructure Trust (KIT) on Tuesday reported a distribution per unit (DPU) of 0.93 Singapore cent for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2018, unchanged from the same period a year before.

Profit attributable to shareholders for the quarter was S$8.15 million, down 47.4 per cent from S$15.5 million in Q3 2017.

Profit for the third quarter, as well as the first nine months of FY2018, was lower than the corresponding periods in the previous year. KIT said this was due mainly to lower contribution from City Gas due to time lag in the adjustment of gas tariffs to reflect actual fuel cost, lower revenue at Australian subsidiary Basslink as a result of the March 2018 service outage, and higher fair-value loss of financial derivative instruments recognised.

Revenue for the quarter was up a marginal 1.1 per cent at S$162 million from S$160.3 million in Q3 2017. For the period, City Gas achieved 100 per cent plant availability and saw higher revenue of S$88.4 million in the quarter due to a higher town gas tariff as a result of higher fuel prices.

Four concessions comprising Senoko WTE, Tuas WTE, SingSpring Desalination and Ulu Pandan NEWater plants contributed revenue of S$24 million, down marginally from S$25.3 million in Q3 2017, due to lower dispatch at the water plants. All four plants fulfilled their contractual obligations in the period.

Basslink's revenue for the quarter was A$16.4 million (S$16.5 million), down from A$19.4 million in the year-ago period, due to the service outage from Mar 25 to June 5 as a result of an incident caused by a third-party contractor. Revenue from KMC was S$33.1 million, comparable to the year-ago period.

Distributable cash flows were stable at S$34.6 million.

Net asset value per unit for the group was 27.9 Singapore cents as at Sept 30, down from 29.9 Singapore cents as at Dec 31. KIT said the fall was primarily attributable to distributions to unitholders, partially offset by marked-to-market movements of derivative financial instruments and profit recognised for the period.

Gearing as at Sept 30 was 40.2 per cent, compared to 39.9 per cent as at Dec 31, 2017.

In a separate regulatory filing on Tuesday, Keppel Infrastructure Trust Fund Management announced that its chief financial officer Lionel Chua will be stepping down effective from 31 Oct to pursue other opportunities. Eric Ng, vice president of finance, will assume the role of head of finance and take over Mr Chua's responsibilities.

KIT units closed up 0.5 Singapore cent or 1.02 per cent at 49.5 Singapore cents on Tuesday before results were announced.

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