CapitaLand Mall Trust has announced a DPU of 2.88 Singapore cents for its 4Q 2016, unchanged from what was paid for the corresponding period of 2015.
Gross revenue and net property income (NPI) for the period fell by 6.1% and 7.6% year-on-year to SGD169.3 million (USD118.7 million) and SGD116.1 million respectively, although distributable income increased slightly by 0.2% to SGD102 million.
Correspondingly DPU for FY2016 fell by 1.1% to 11.13 cents, from the 11.25 cents reported for FY2015. Based on the retail REIT’s closing price of SGD1.970 per unit on 19 January, the distribution yield is 5.82%.
The REIT has attributed these results to a softening economy, and loss of revenue from the divestment of Rivervale Mall, and closure of Funan for redevelopment works.
“Against this challenging backdrop, CapitaLand Mall Trust’s performance has remained resilient, underpinned by its well-located portfolio of malls catering predominantly to necessity shopping, scale and strong retailer network”, said Richard Magnus, Chairman of the REIT’s manager, in a statement on the results.
“In ensuring [that the REIT’s]malls stay attractive to tenants and shoppers, we have been harnessing technological innovations to serve them better and more efficiently. These include continual improvements to our loyalty programmes and operations, as well as asset enhancement initiatives to refresh our offerings”, he added.
As at 31 December 2016, the REIT’s aggregate occupancy rate was at 98.5%. For FY2016, CapitaLand Mall Trust also registered 0.9% and 2.3% increases in tenant sales per square foot and shopper traffic respectively.
The REIT’s average cost of debt and aggregate leverage were 3.2% and 34.8% respectively.
Units of CapitaLand Mall Trust finished its last session on the Singapore Exchange about 0.7% lower from the previous close, ending at SGD1.97.