CMT's Q2 Net Income Up 27.6% to $48.8m

Source: The Business Times, July 28, 2007

The Reit's strong Q2 showing is due to good revenue growth

CAPITAMALL Trust (CMT) yesterday said that distributable income for the second quarter ended June 30, 2007, rose 27.6 per cent year-on-year to $48.8 million, boosted by higher rents and earnings from its newly acquired stake in Raffles City.












Distributable income for the same three months in 2006 came to $38.3 million. CMT bought 40 per cent of the Raffles City retail and office complex on Sept 1 last year.

Distribution per unit (DPU) increased by 12.6 per cent to 3.12 cents, from 2.77 cents for 2006.

For the first six months of 2007, CMT recorded a 26.2 per cent jump in distributable income to $95.7 million while DPU rose 11.5 per cent to 6.12 cents.

CMT, which is the largest real estate investment trust (Reit) in Singapore, has an asset size of about $5.7 billion. The trust said that it owns 13 per cent of the private retail stock by net lettable area in Singapore.

The trust's strong second-quarter showing was underpinned by good revenue growth as most of its malls performed better than expected in the second quarter, it said.

Net property income for the three months rose 36.2 per cent to $67.1 million, mainly due to revenue of some $16.3 million from CMT's Raffles City stake. Another $6.4 million increase in revenue came from other malls mostly due to new and renewed leases as well as higher revenue from IMM Building which benefited from asset enhancement works.

'We remain confident of the acquisition opportunities in Singapore and have raised our target asset size to $8 billion by 2010,' said Hsuan Owyang, chairman of CMT's manager.

In the second quarter, the trust said it will pay some $290.3 million for three local suburban shopping malls here.

The Reit may also buy 50 per cent of Ion Orchard, a mall its parent company CapitaLand is developing with Hong Kong's Sun Hung Kai Properties along the Orchard Road shopping belt.

CapitaLand's stake in the mall, which is expected to be completed by end-2008, is worth more than $1 billion, Pua Seck Guan, chief executive of CapitaLand's retail arm, told reporters yesterday.

The trust also plans to spend $169 million upgrading its malls this year, and another $127 million in 2008.

Amid a broad market retreat, CMT's shares fell 12 cents to close at $3.64 yesterday. The stock has climbed 25.1 per cent since the start of the year.