Mapletree Commercial Trust's net property income up 5.6 per cent for 9-month period

MAPLETREE Commercial Trust (MCT), the target of a proposed merger with Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust, on Wednesday (Jan 26) posted net property income of S$291.3 million for the nine months to Dec 31, 2021, 5.6 per cent higher than a year ago.

The manager attributed it to lower rental rebates and higher compensation received from lease pre-terminations. Gross revenue was up 7.2 per cent to S$374 million, driven by contributions from VivoCity, while property operating expenses increased by 13.6 per cent to S$82.7 million.

The committed occupancy of MCT's portfolio was 96.3 per cent as at Dec 31, the manager said in a business update. All of MCT's properties are in Singapore.

Strong spending during the festive season and relaxation of Covid-19 measures drove the improvement of tenant sales at VivoCity in Q3 by 3.7 per cent year on year, reaching almost 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

Tenant sales grew 17.8 per cent for the 9-month period, outpacing shopper traffic, which grew by 10.2 per cent. VivoCity's committed occupancy was 98.9 per cent as at Dec 31.

Gross revenue from the office/business park assets for the 9-month period grew 3.3 per cent, while net property income rose 2.1 per cent. This was driven by higher contribution from MBC, mTower and Bank of America Merrill Lynch HarbourFront (MLHF).

mTower's committed occupancy improved to 87.6 per cent from 80.4 per cent. MLHF had full occupancy; MBC and Mapletree Anson's occupancy stood at 96.7 per cent and 95.9 per cent respectively.

The weighted average lease expiry of MCT's portfolio was 2.7 years as at Dec 31, 2021.

As at end-December, the average term to maturity of MCT's debt was 3.5 years. Its aggregate leverage was 34.1 per cent.

Its weighted average all-in cost of debt was 2.39 per cent per annum and the interest coverage ratio was 4.8 times on a 12-month trailing basis.

The manager said it has 75.3 per cent of total debt of about S$3 billion on fixed rates, and no more than 24 per cent of debt is due in any financial year.

Units in MCT ended trading on Wednesday at S$1.84, up S$0.01 or 0.55 per cent.