1Q revenue grew by 30% to $46.7 million, supported by incremental income from new acquisitions, developments, and positive rental reversions.
Net property income for 1Q similarly increased by 29% to $30.4 million from the previous year.
Net finance costs increased by 95% to $7.1 million due to funds deployed to finance the acquisitions of BlueRidge 2, aVance 4 and development of Atria building. There was also a one-off settlement with a tenant at Park Square as as part of our initiative to revamp and refresh the tenant mix of the mall.
Income available for distribution fell 3% to $13.5 million while income to be distributed fell 3% to $12.2 million.
“Excluding the one-off settlement, 1Q DPU would have remained stable at 1.37 cents over the same period,” says Sanjeev Dasgupta, CEO of Ascendas Property Fund Trustee, a-iTrust's manager.
a-iTrust’s committed portfolio occupancy – excluding BlueRidge 2 which has not achieved income stabilisation – was 97% as at end June.
The committed occupancy for BlueRidge 2 has increased from 55% as at March 2017 to 62% as at June 2017. Active discussions are underway to lease an additional 7% of BlueRidge 2’s floor area.
a-iTrust’s gearing ratio was 30% as at Jun2 30. Based on its current gearing limit of 45%, the trust has additional debt headroom of $445 million.
About 96% of the trust’s borrowings are effectively on a fixed-interest rate basis whi;e 70% of total borrowings were hedged into Indian Rupees.
In Hyderabad, a-iTrust is developing Atria, a 428,000 square feet multi-tenanted building at The V, to cater to expansion demand from existing tenants. Atria is scheduled to be completed by September, and has achieved lease commitment of 84% as at June 30.
In Bangalore, construction of a new 500,000 square feet multi-tenanted building has started in July, and is expected to be completed by second half of 2019.
Units in a-iTrust closed at $1.16 on Monday.
