Higher office rents add shine to CCT's bottom line
The Straits Times
| April 20, 2013
Higher interest income, lower interest expense also lift Q1
results
Higher rents from its office buildings and an increase in
interest income helped Capita-Commercial Trust (CCT) improve its numbers for
the first quarter.
Distribution income for the three months to March 31
increased 3.3 per cent from a year earlier to $55.7 million.
The trust's distribution per unit for the quarter was 1.96
cents, up 3.2 per cent from a year earlier.
CCT said the better results were mainly due to higher
contributions from Twenty Anson, which was acquired in March last year, and
higher rents from HSBC Building, collected from the end of April last year.
An increase in interest income from shareholder loans and
lower interest expenses also helped lift distribution income.
Net property income for the quarter increased 7.1 per cent
to $74.9 million.
CCT management chairman Kee Teck Koon said: "CCT's
office portfolio is well positioned to benefit from positive rent reversions,
given that the average rent of leases expiring in the rest of this year is
lower than the average monthly office market rent as at the three months to
March 31."
Revenue from all the trust's properties increased except for
Capital Tower and Wilkie Edge.
Revenue for the quarter was $95.9 million, up 9.7 per cent
from a year earlier.
Occupancy levels for the trust's office portfolio remained
resilient at 95.3 per cent, compared with 93.2 per cent for office space in the
Central Business District in the quarter.
CCT management chief executive Lynette Leong said the
portfolio's average rents rose from $7.64 per sq ft in the fourth quarter of
last year to $7.83 per sq ft in the first three months of this year.
She added that a total of 409,900 sq ft of new and renewed
leases for office and retail space were signed in the quarter.
Its new tenants include General Mills Sales Singapore and
the New Zealand High Commission.
Earnings per unit for the period came in at 1.9 cents, up
from 1.76 cents a year earlier.
Net asset value per unit was $1.64 for the three months to
March 31, down from $1.66 a year earlier.
Renovations at Six Battery Road should be finished by the
end of the year, while work at Raffles City Tower will continue until the
second quarter of next year.
The CapitaGreen development is due to be completed by the
fourth quarter of next year.
CCT units closed down 4.5 cents at $1.66 yesterday.
Martin Koh | 86666 944 | R020968Z
Sherry Tang | 9844 4400 | R020241C
Senior Sales Director
DTZ Property Network Pte Ltd (L3007960A)
Email: marshe_inc@yahoo.com.sg
