Mapletree Industrial Trust Q4 DPU flat at S$0.0336
For the year, the trust’s DPU rises 1% to S$0.1357
[SINGAPORE] Mapletree Industrial Trust (MIT) on Wednesday (Apr 30) posted a distribution per unit (DPU) of S$0.0336 for the fourth quarter ended Mar 31, unchanged from the same period last year.
This came even as revenue dipped 0.5 per cent to S$177.8 million, from S$178.7 million in the corresponding period in the previous year.
In a bourse filing on Wednesday, the manager attributed the decline in revenue to the non-renewal of leases in its North America portfolio and loss of income from divesting a cluster of factories in Tanglin Halt in March last year.
This was partially offset by contributions from a mixed-use facility in Tokyo that the real estate investment trust acquired in the financial year, as well as higher contributions from renewals and new leases in Singapore, said the manager.
Net property income (NPI) likewise fell by 0.5 per cent to S$131.2 million in Q4, despite a 0.6 per cent decrease in property operating expenses to S$46.6 million.
Borrowing costs declined by 7 per cent to S$25.8 million, thanks to lower interest on unhedged floating-rate loans. This was partly offset by higher borrowing costs in MIT’s Japan portfolio, added the manager. This brought distributable income in the three months to S$95.8 million.
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The figure includes the distribution of a net divestment gain of S$13.4 million from the two factories in Tanglin Halt, and the distribution of a net compensation of S$1.9 million for a redevelopment project that was recognised in the first quarter.
The distribution will be paid out on Jun 13, after the record date on May 9.
On a full-year basis, MIT’s DPU rose 1 per cent to S$0.1357, from the previous financial year’s S$0.1343. This followed a 2.1 per cent increase in revenue to S$711.8 million, and NPI growing 2 per cent to S$531.5 million.
The manager attributed the improved performance to higher contributions from its data centre in Osaka and the newly acquired mixed-use facility in Tokyo, and new lease and renewals across various Singapore properties. These were offset by higher property maintenance costs and marketing costs, it noted.
Distributable income consequently inched up 2 per cent to S$386 million.
For the quarter, average occupancy in MIT’s overall portfolio fell to 91.6 per cent, weighed down by occupancy rates in North America. In Singapore, the average occupancy rate rose to 92.9 per cent with average rents growing to S$2.29 per square foot per month.
The manager added that all property segments in the city-state saw positive rental reversions for renewed leases, with a weighted average rental reversion rate of around 8.1 per cent.
Meanwhile, the weighted average tenor of debt for the group stood at 3.2 years as at Mar 31, with an aggregate leverage ratio of 40.1 per cent. Some 78.1 per cent of the trust’s gross borrowings have been hedged through interest-rate swaps and fixed-rate borrowings. The average borrowing cost for the quarter edged down to 3 per cent, with an interest coverage ratio of 4.3 times.
Ler Lily, chief executive of the manager, said that MIT’s stable set of results was underpinned by the steady portfolio rebalancing initiatives in Japan.
She reckoned that headwinds from higher operating expenses and borrowing costs will continue, and this may be compounded by the potential escalation in trade tensions and global trade policy uncertainty. “To strengthen MIT’s resilience, we remain focused on pursuing selective divestments of non-core assets and accretive investments,” she added.
Units of MIT closed S$0.01 or 0.5 per cent lower at S$2.02 on Wednesday, before the announcement.
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