Stocks to watch: CapitaLand Retail China Trust, Soilbuild Reit, Parkson Retail Asia, Civmec

CAPITALAND Retail China Trust (CRCT): The trust is acquiring a shopping mall in Chengdu for 1.5 billion yuan (S$303 million).

Galleria has been valued at 1.52 billion yuan by Savills Valuation & Professional Services as at July 26. Including acquisition-related expenses, the total investment cost for the mall is expected to be about 1.527 billion yuan. CRCT plans to finance the purchase with a mix of existing cash and additional debt.

When the transaction is completed, the acquisition will enlarge CRCT's portfolio size by about 14 per cent to 12.55 billion yuan. The mall has a current net property income yield of about 5.4 per cent and the acquisition is expected to be distribution per unit-accretive for CRCT.

The six-storey mall, which opened its doors in 2010, has a gross floor area, excluding car park, of about 53,619 square metres and 900 car-park spaces. As at end-May, it was fully occupied.

Soilbuild Business Space Reit: The Reit is raising up to S$59.4 million via a preferential offering to partly fund the acquisition of Bukit Batok Connection.

The Reit is issuing up to 94.35 million new units at S$0.63 per unit through a pro-rata non-renounceable preferential offering to its existing unitholders. At S$0.63, this is a discount of 8.2 per cent to the volume-weighted average price of S$0.6865 per unit for trades done on Aug 18. The preferential offering is made on the basis of one new unit for every 10 existing units held by Soilbuild's entitled unitholders.

The Reit will raise net proceeds of up to approximately S$59.2 million.

Soilbuild group co-founder Lim Chap Huat has committed to take up his pro-rata entitlement and to undertake to apply for excess units if they are unsubscribed, which would take his stake (and that held by his immediate family) in the Reit up to 29.3 per cent. His current stake is 25.16 per cent.

Parkson Retail Asia: The department store operator posted a net loss of S$11.98 million for the fourth quarter ended June 30, narrowing from the S$59.77 million loss a year ago.

It managed to narrow its losses in the fourth quarter as its revenue improved by 10.9 per cent to S$93.86 million on the back of stronger sales in Malaysia and Indonesia.

The period saw a sharp 70.4 per cent drop in other expenses to S$27.6 million.

"Other expenses were higher in the comparative FY2015 periods due significantly to contingent expenses recorded in Q4 FY2015 related to the closure of a store at Landmark 72, Hanoi of S$64.8 million," said Parkson.

The board of directors is recommending a payment of 0.5 Singapore cent per share in final dividend.

For the full year ended June 30, Parkson Retail Asia swung back to a net profit of S$33.1 million, from a net loss of S$34.69 million in the preceding year, as it recognised a gain of S$45.6 million on partial disposal of Parkson Hanoi Co Ltd (PHCL). PHCL has become an associate company following the disposal.

Civmec: A weaker Australian dollar and the lack of a one-off tax gain recorded the previous year weighed down the company's results for its fourth quarter.

Net profit plummeted 77.4 per cent to S$1.5 million from the previous year.

For the three months ended June 30, revenue tumbled 22.9 per cent to S$88.4 million from the year-ago period. The decline in revenue was due partly to an approximately 10 per cent decline in the Australian dollar against the Singapore dollar over the period, it said.

Q4 earnings per share sank to 0.26 Singapore cent from 1.31 Singapore cents in the previous year.