Strong rental growth lifts Fortune Reit Q3 earnings

SINGAPORE - Strong growth in rents at its Hong Kong shopping malls gave a boost to third-quarter earnings for Fortune Reit.

The real estate investment trust (Reit) said in a statement on Tuesday that distribution per unit for the three months to Sept 30 climbed to 10.30 HK cents, up from 8.28 HK cents the previous year.

Income available for distribution shot up 25.9 per cent to HK$193.1 million (S$31.2 million) on the back of a 33 per cent jump in net property income to HK$286.7 million

Revenue also climbed 32 per cent to HK$416.6 million.

The trust noted that tourist spending in Hong Kong has slackened and democracy protests that paralysed the city's downtown in late September have had an "adverse impact" on the city's economic outlook.

However, it said that its portfolio of retail properties in private housing estates "caters mainly to day-to-day shopping needs".

It could therefore "benefit from the resilient nature of the non-discretionary retail sector" and thus be less affected by a slowdown in consumer demand, it said.

Fortune Reit is managed by ARA Asset Management. Its units rose two HK cents to end at HK$7.25 on Tuesday.

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