Soilbuild Reit's Q1 DPU down 4.7%

Singapore

SOILBUILD Business Space Reit's (Soilbuild Reit) distribution per unit for the first quarter ended March 31 dipped 4.7 per cent from 1.633 Singapore cents to 1.557 Singapore cents while distributable income rose 9.6 per cent, from S$13.3 million to S$14.6 million.

Gross revenue for the quarter rose 8.2 per cent from S$18.6 million to S$20.1 million, mainly due to additional rental revenue from Technics and Solaris. They amount to S$2.0 million and S$0.1 million respectively. This was partially offset by a reduction in revenue from Tuas Connection and West Park BizCentral amounting to S$0.4 million and S$0.3 million respectively.

Property operating expenses were S$2.9 million in Q1 FY2016 which was S$0.1 million higher than the year-ago period mainly due to higher property operating expenses incurred on West Park Biz Central.

For the quarter under review, net property income rose 8.8 per cent from S$15.8 million to S$17.2 million.

Roy Teo, CEO of the Reit manager, said: "Soilbuild Reit has continued to deliver a resilient performance amid the challenging industrial market. For Q1 FY2016, the fall in occupancy is partially cushioned by a 6.6 per cent positive rental reversion, despite several quarters of declining rental in various sub-industrial sectors."

As at end March, occupancy rate was 94.8 per cent. Over 280,000 square feet of renewals and new leases were signed in Q1. Weighted average lease expiry by gross rental income stands at 4.7 years.

He added: "The challenge ahead is to re-let the vacant space and renew 7.2 per cent of the multi-tenanted leases that are expiring for the rest of the year."

Net asset value per unit was S$0.79 as at March 31, compared with S$0.80 as at end December 2015.

Soilbuild Reit's counter ended trading up half a cent at S$0.75.