SINGAPORE - Higher rents from its shopping malls lifted third-quarter earnings at Frasers Centrepoint Trust on Tuesday.

The trust posted a distribution per unit (DPU) of 3.022 cents for the three months to March 31, up 6 per cent from the preceding year.

Income available for distribution for the quarter rose 1.3 per cent from the year before to $23.4 million.

Net property income was up 2.4 per cent at $29.1 million and gross revenue increased 3.1 per cent to $41.2 million from the corresponding period last year.

The trust manager, Frasers Centrepoint Asset Management, said in a statement that the growth in revenue was mainly due to higher rents from renewed leases and new contributions from its Changi City Point mall, which was acquired on June 16.

The trust's portfolio occupancy rate as at March 31 was 98.5 per cent, up from the 96.8 per cent recorded at the end of the preceding quarter.

Occupancy at Bedok Point, which was undergoing fitting-out works, improved to 99.3 per cent from 77 per cent in the preceding quarter after new tenants opened at the mall.

Excluding Changi City Point, overall traffic at all its malls improved 2.7 per cent to 20.94 million shoppers in the same period, driven mainly by Causeway Point.

Earnings per unit for the three-month period ended June 30 was 8.43 cents, down from 8.69 cents the same period a year ago, while net asset value per unit as at June 30 was $1.78, inching up from $1.77 as at Sept 30.

Its units rose a cent to close at $1.965 on Tuesday.