THE downturn failed to take much wind out of the sails of Ascendas Reit (A-Reit), with the property firm racking up a robust third-quarter performance.
Its manager, Ascendas Funds Management, reported a distributable income of $61.2 million for the three months to Dec 31, up 13.4 per cent from the $54 million a year earlier. That translates into a distribution per unit of 3.27 cents, up from the 2.88 cents for the same period a year ago.
The higher net income was mainly due to additional income from properties completed after December 2008 and lower property expenses.
Ascendas Funds Management’s chief executive and executive director, Mr Tan Ser Ping, also noted in a statement yesterday the ‘healthy occupancy rate of 96.5 per cent for A-Reit’s portfolio despite the challenging economic climate’.
A-Reit had total assets of $4.8 billion as of Dec 31, with a diversified portfolio of 91 properties here and a tenant base of about 900 international and local firms.
Occupancy for the various sectors has stayed higher than the market average. Mr Tan attributed this to ‘the quality and resilience of the properties as well as the diversified nature of the portfolio’.
A-Reit continued to reap good rental returns for its properties in high-tech industrial, logistics and distribution centres as well as business and science parks.
‘This growth can be attributed to the fact that the in-place rent of the leases which have been renewed was lower than current market rentals,’ said Mr Tan.
The firm is also diversified in terms of long-term leases. No single property accounts for more than 4.5 per cent of A-Reit’s monthly gross revenue and it has a weighted average lease term to expiry of about 4.8 years.
A-Reit units closed two cents down at $2.02 yesterday.
Source: Straits Times, 19 Jan 2010
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