SINGAPORE - CapitaLand Retail China Trust (CRCT) on Wednesday (July 31) posted a distribution per unit (DPU) of 2.54 cents for the second quarter ended June 30, down 3.8 per cent from the year-ago DPU, after capital distribution, of 2.64 cents.
Excluding capital distribution, the year-ago DPU was 2.49 cents. The second quarter last year included a capital distribution of $1.5 million arising from the gain from the divestment of the stake in a company which held CapitaMall Anzhen.
Gross revenue for the China shopping mall real estate investment trust (Reit) grew 1.9 per cent from a year ago to 274.9 million yuan ($54.7 million) for Q2 this year, boosted by stronger rental growth from the core multi-tenanted malls.
This was offset mainly by lower revenue in CapitaMall Grand Canyon and CapitaMall Qibao.
However, in Singapore-dollar (SGD) terms, gross revenue fell 1.9 per cent to $55.2 million, due to the stronger SGD against the yuan.
Net property income (NPI) grew 11.5 per cent to 201.1 million yuan for the quarter, up from 180.4 million yuan a year ago.
In SGD terms, NPI increased 7.3 per cent to $40.4 million, up from $37.6 million for the year-ago period.
Income available for distribution to unitholders rose 5 per cent to $25.4 million.
Based on CRCT's closing price of $1.60 on July 30, the annualised distribution yield for Q2 was 6.4 per cent.
CRCT has completed all term-loan refinancing due in 2019, and has refinanced part of the loans due in 2020. About 80 per cent of its total term loans are on fixed interest rates.
As at end-June, CRCT's gearing was 33.8 per cent, well below the regulatory limit of 45 per cent.
For the half year ended June 30, gross revenue was up 3.2 per cent to 554.5 million yuan, while NPI grew 11.1 per cent to about 400 million yuan.
In SGD terms, half-year gross revenue edged down 0.5 per cent to $111.1 million, while NPI was up 7.2 per cent to $80.2 million.
The Reit owns and invests in 11 shopping malls located in eight cities in China, as at June 30.
Units of CRCT were down one cent or 0.621 per cent to $1.60 on Tuesday.
