Friday, April 25, 2008

Mapletree Logistics Trust Posts S$21m In Q1 Earnings, Up 37% On-Year

Source : Channel NewsAsia, 24 April 2008

Mapletree Logistics Trust has booked a distributable income of S$21 million for the first quarter, up 37 percent compared to a year ago.

Mapletree Logistics will distribute 1.90 Singapore cents per unit for the first quarter, up from 1.48 Singapore cents a year earlier.

Net property income rose 45 percent on-year to S$37.4 million, while gross revenue shot up by 48 percent on-year to S$42.6 million.

Mapletree Logistics is continuing to see strong demand for its logistics space. It renewed 50,000 square metres of space in the first quarter, with 94 percent coming from existing tenants. Rentals in the first quarter jumped by almost 29% over the same period last year.

"Going forward, we have about another 124,000 square metres of space that are coming up for renewals in two major countries - Hong Kong and Singapore. And with that, we are looking at something like about a 12 percent increase in terms of rental reversion," said Chua Tiow Chye, CEO of Mapletree Logistics Trust.

But given the overall market conditions, the REIT is delaying plans for a rights issue.

Chua said: "We will continue to monitor the situation, and at a right time, we will re-enter the market to raise fresh equity from new investors or existing investors.

"But for the time being, we have a strong, robust portfolio of existing assets, and from this we should be able to give our investors a good yield of DPU growth for the current year."

The REIT manager also dismissed market speculation that it may merge its logistics and industrial trusts.

Mapletree Logistics said it will continue to stay focused on the logistics real estate market in Asia. - CNA /ls

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