During the quarter, gross revenue and NPI for its retail assets and integrated developments rose on a y-o-y basis, and fell for its office assets.
Year-to-date ended March 31, CICT's retail portfolio's rent reversion stood at a positive 10.4% while its office portfolio's reversion came in at a positive 5.4%.
Tenant sales for the 1QFY2025 rose by 17.5% y-o-y while shopper traffic grew by 23% y-o-y.
Contribution from joint ventures such as Ion Orchard, in which CICT acquired a 50% stake in October 2024, is only reflected at the distributable income level, which was not mentioned in this business update. CICT's manager proposed the acquisition of the 50% stake in the mall in September; the acquisition was completed in October after unitholders approved the proposed acquisition at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Oct 29, 2024.
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As at March 31, the REIT's portfolio occupancy stood at 96.4%, 0.3 percentage points lower q-o-q, while portfolio weighted average lease expiry (WALE) stood at 3.2 years, unchanged q-o-q.
Aggregate leverage was up by 0.2 percentage points q-o-q at 38.7% with the REIT's interest coverage ratio (ICR) at 3.2 times.
Assuming a 1 percentage point increase in interest rates, the REIT will have to fork out an additional $20.12 million in interest expenses per year, leading to a 0.28 cent dip in its estimated distribution per unit (DPU).
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In its outlook statement, the REIT says it plans to conduct an asset enhancement initiative (AEI) on Tampines Mall in 4Q2025, in keeping with the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) plans for Tampines Regional Centre. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) is exploring to transform part of Tampines Central 5 into a pedestrianised street between the malls in Tampines and Tampines MRT station.
CICT also seeks to curate its retail experiences in line with the demographic changes in Singapore with offerings and amenities for the active agers economy.
The REIT adds that things look positive with retail rents to be supported by the limited retail supply; the known future supply of proposed retail projects are also mainly in the outside central region (OCR) and fringe supermarkets.
There will also be a limited supply of offices within the central business district (CBD) for the next few years from 2025 to 2027, with no commercial sites in the CBD on the government land sales (GLS) reserve and confirmed lists, CICT adds.
Units in CICT closed at $2.14 on April 24.
