New mall boosts Croesus's Q1 revenue, earnings; distributions flat

CROESUS Retail Trust on Wednesday reported a distribution per unit (DPU) of 2.08 Singapore cents for its first quarter ended Sept 30, 2015, unchanged from a year ago.

Gross revenue rose 17.2 per cent to two billion yen (S$23 million). This was due mainly to the acquisition of One's Mall in Chiba, Japan, in October last year, and the tenant renewal exercise at Mallage Shobu in the Saitama Prefecture, it said. However, the increase was partially offset by an absence of a one-off income at Mallage Shobu recorded in Q1 last year.

The contribution from One's Mall and savings in property operating expenses helped net property income to increase 10.7 per cent to 1.2 billion yen.

On the outlook, the trust said the competition for acquiring real estate assets in Japan has been keen in recent quarters, and is expected to remain firm in the near term.

This comes as Japan has announced further quantitative easing policies, which is expected to further accelerate Japanese real estate prices.

Illustratively, as a result of growing property prices in FY15, the aggregate value of the trust's seven properties increased 7.9 per cent as at the end of FY15, when compared to the prior valuation a year ago.

Croesus makes distributions to unitholders on a semi-annual basis with the amount calculated as at end-June and end-December each year.

It is an Asia-Pacific retail business trust, with seven retail properties located across Japan with an aggregate net lettable area of about 251,000 square metres.