CMMT records net property income of RM53.6 million for 1Q 2015
Distribution per unit is 2.25 sen for the quarter
Kuala Lumpur, 15 April 2015 – CapitaMalls Malaysia REIT Management Sdn. Bhd. (“CMRM”), the manager of CapitaMalls Malaysia Trust (“CMMT”), announced today that CMMT recorded net property income of RM53.6 million for the quarter from 1 January 2015 to 31 March 2015 (“1Q 2015”) – 2.1% higher than the RM52.5 million for the same quarter last year (“1Q 2014”). The increase was mainly due to contribution from East Coast Mall in Kuantan, which completed its asset enhancement works.
With a distributable income of RM40.0 million, the distribution per unit (“DPU”) for 1Q 2015 was therefore 2.25 sen. The annualised DPU of 9.13 sen translates to an annualised distribution yield of 6.0% based on CMMT’s closing price of RM1.53 per unit on 14 April 2015. As CMMT’s DPU is paid out on a half yearly basis, unitholders can expect to receive their DPU for 1Q 2015, along with their DPU for the quarter ending 30 June 2015, by August 2015.
Mr David Wong Chin Huat, Chairman of CMRM, said, “Despite a challenging external environment, the Malaysian economy is expected to remain on a steady growth path. Malaysia’s Gross Domestic Product is forecast to expand by between 4.5% and 5.5%1 this year, underpinned by strong domestic fundamentals and a resilient export sector. With the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax this month, we expect consumer spending to be cautious as consumers adjust to it. However, we expect that our portfolio of day-to-day necessity shopping malls, which has proven to be resilient during different economic cycles, will continue to deliver steady returns for unitholders.”
Ms Low Peck Chen, CEO of CMRM, said, “For the quarter under review, East Coast Mall turned in a solid performance following the completion of its two-year asset enhancement works in 2014, registering 15.7% growth in net property income. This is a reflection of our expertise in enhancing our assets’ value to further improve returns for our unitholders.”
“This year, we also expect to complete our proposed acquisition of Tropicana City Mall and Tropicana City Office Tower, thereby increasing CMMT’s property asset value by approximately 17.3% to about RM3.8 billion, and total net lettable area by approximately 21.6% to about 3 million square feet.”
“Despite the temporary impact of the nearby Mass Rapid Transit construction works on Sungei Wang Plaza and other external headwinds, we remain confident that the consistent performances of the other malls in our geographically diversified portfolio will help to cushion the effect and continue to provide stable returns for unitholders.”
Ms Low added, “As part of our on-going efforts to strengthen CMMT’s financial position and liquidity, we completed several initiatives during the quarter to minimise interest rate and refinancing risks. These included fixing the interest rate for a loan for another three years and extending the average term to maturity from 2.0 years to 7.3 years.”
Summary of CMMT’s results
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1Source: Bank Negara Malaysia Annual Report 2014.
2Based on closing price of RM1.53 per unit on 14 April 2015.
3Based on closing price of RM1.44 per unit on 15 April 2014.