Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT), which owns warehouses and container depots in Singapore and abroad, said yesterday its distributable income for first-quarter 2007 grew 84.2 per cent to $15.3 million, from $8.3 million a year earlier.
The trust’s dividend per unit (DPU) rose 34.5 per cent to 1.48 cents, from 1.10 cents in Q1 2006. Distributable income was 8.5 per cent higher than forecast, while DPU was 7.2 per cent above the forecast. Net property income rose 128 per cent to $25.7 million.
Chua Tiow Chye, chief executive of MLT’s management team, attributed the performance to the 25 new properties acquired in the past year. The new acquisitions took the number of completed assets to 49 with a combined value of more than $1.5 billion.
Thirteen acquisitions are pending completion. Once they are completed, MLT will have 62 properties in its portfolio - 38 in Singapore, nine in Malaysia, six in Japan, six in Hong Kong and three in China.
Mr Chua said the trust is also exploring new markets such as Vietnam, India and South Korea. MLT hopes to have assets in Vietnam and South Korea by the end of this year. In India it has no assets lined up for acquisition and will work with its sponsor Mapletree Investments to build properties the trust can later acquire.
Right now, Singapore and Hong Kong together account for about 94 per cent of the trust’s gross revenue, with Japan, China and Malaysia making up the balance. Going forward, MLT expects more income contributions to come from Japan, China and Malaysia.
Mr Chua said the trust is confident of delivering its 5.69 cents DPU forecast this year on the back of a strong first quarter performance. MLT closed unchanged at $1.33 yesterday.
Source: The Business Times, 27 April 2007
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