Jackson Square, a property in Viva Industrial Trust's portfolio. (Photo: REITsWeek)

Singapore-listed Viva Industrial Trust announced on 28 April that it has achieved a distribution per stapled security (DPS) of 1.638 Singapore cents for its 1Q 2016, a fall of 12.4% compared to the 1.87 cents paid in its 1Q 2015.

The trust has attributed the fall to an enlarged share base following the completion of two private placements and a preferential offering in FY2015 that increased the number of units by approximately 233.4 million or 37.4%.

Distributable income for the period came in at SGD14.14 million, an increase of 21.6% year-on-year from the SGDSGD11.63 million achieved in 1Q 2015. Correspondingly gross revenue and net property income (NPI) increased by 21.2% and 27.3% year-on-year to SGD21.91 million and SGD15.80 million respectively.

“The strong performance was mainly driven by additional rental contribution of SGD2.6 million from Home-Fix Building and 11 Ubi Road 1, as well as higher revenue contribution from Viva Business Park and Jackson Square by SGD0.9 million and SGD0.3 million, respectively”, said the trust in its statement on the results.

Viva Industrial Trust’s aggregate portfolio occupancy for the quarter was at 86.9% with a weighted average lease expiry (WALE) of 3.5 years by gross rental income. Its gearing has been lowered from 38.6% to 37.6% as at 31 March 2016 with a weighted average debt maturity of 4.0 years.

“We have made considerable investments in the past year which are starting to bear fruit”, said Wilson Ang, CEO of the trust’s REIT component’s manager. “We will stay focused on building upon Viva Industrial Trust’s fundamentals and keep a look out for opportunities to drive further value for our stapled security holders”, he added.

Units of Viva Industrial Trust were last done at SGD0.73 on the Singapore Exchange.

By Ridzwan Rahmat

Ridzwan has been analysing REITs and business trusts since 2008, and personally manages a portfolio comprising mainly of SGX-listed REITs. He founded REITsWeek in 2013.