Manulife US Reit DPU up 33.6% to 1.51 US cents for Q3

MANULIFE US Reit (real estate investment trust) reported on Monday morning that its distribution per unit (DPU) for its fiscal third quarter expanded 33.6 per cent to 1.51 US cents from 1.13 US cents in the preceding year.

That came as Q3 income available for distribution leapt 64.9 per cent to US$19.3 million from US$11.7 million in the year-ago period.

For the three months ended Sept 30, gross revenue got a 75.3 per cent boost to US$40.4 million from US$23.1 million for the period in the preceding year.

Net property income surged 74.9 per cent to US$25.1 million from US$14.4 million the preceding year.

In a filing with the Singapore Exchange, Manulife US Reit said this was largely due to strong income contributions from the Plaza and Exchange office properties in New Jersey which were acquired in 2017, and the Penn property in Washington DC and Phipps property in Atlanta, both of which were acquired in 2018.

Said Jill Smith, chief executive officer of the manager of Manulife US Reit: "During this quarter, we witnessed strong leasing momentum and recorded an average positive rental reversion of 13.5 per cent. Occupancy rates have increased in four of our properties, with two at full occupancy, bringing our total portfolio occupancy to 96.5 per cent. Moving forward, we believe our high quality portfolio will mitigate the impact of future rate hikes with close to 100 per cent fixed rate loans and built-in rental escalations."

PhillipCapital's Phillip SING Income exchange-traded fund was launched on Oct 29, with Manulife US Reit, one of 30 securities picked as part of the fund.

Manulife US Reit units ended up S$0.02 or 2.7 per cent at S$0.75 on Friday.