SINGAPORE • CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust (CICT) saw its net property income (NPI) rise 66.6 per cent in the first quarter ended March 31 to $247.1 million from $172.1 million a year ago, reported its manager in a business update yesterday.

Gross revenue rose 63.9 per cent to $334.8 million from $204.3 million in the first quarter last year.

The improved revenue and NPI were mainly due to higher integrated development performance compared with the previous year, as well as income contribution from office assets starting from Oct 21 last year.

As at March 31 this year, CICT's committed portfolio occupancy stood at 95.9 per cent.

Its retail occupancy stood at 97.1 per cent with shopper traffic recovering to 74.3 per cent of the level a year ago, while tenants' sales for the first quarter grew 2.9 per cent.

Office occupancy was 94.9 per cent, boosted by a 5.3 per cent increase in total new and renewal leases to 291,800 square feet (sq ft) for the quarter.

Occupancy rate of integrated developments stood at 96.5 per cent as at end-March, with a weighted average lease expiry by monthly gross rental income of five years.

Overall, CICT's portfolio weighted average lease expiry stood at 3.1 years based on its 50 per cent interest in One George Street, 94.9 per cent interest in Gallileo and Main Airport Centre, Frankfurt, and WeWork's seven-year lease at 21 Collyer Quay.

After issuing two long tenor notes through its $7 billion multi-currency medium term note programme in the first quarter, the real estate investment trust's average term to maturity has been extended to 4.4 years as at end-March, compared with 4.1 years as at end-2020.

In its business update, the Reit manager said CapitaSpring is on track for completion in the second half of this year. The integrated development in Raffles Place has achieved a committed occupancy of 50 per cent as at April 15 - with another 15 per cent under advance negotiation.

THE BUSINESS TIMES