OUE C-REIT's NPI up 23.5% to $43.57m in Q1

Earnings were boosted by OUE Downtown Office.

OUE Commercial Real Estate Investment Trust (OUE C-REIT) started 2019 on a high note as its net property income (NPI) jumped 23.5% YoY to $43.57m in Q1 from $35.28m in 2018, an announcement revealed. Revenue for the quarter also leapt 25.5% YoY from $44.1m to $55.34m.

Its strong performance was attributed to the inclusion of OUE Downtown Office’s income, which was acquired in November 2018, and one-off income from OUE Bayfront and One Raffles Place.

The firm’s amount available for distribution soared 49.5% YoY from $17.42m in 2018 to $26.04m in Q1 2019. The quarter’s distribution per unit (DPU) also jumped 47.5% YoY to stand at $0.09 from $0.061 in 2018, translating to a distribution yield of 6.9% based on OUE C-REIT’s unit closing price of $0.52 as at 29 March 2019.

OUE C-REIT’s portfolio comprises four prime commercial properties, One Raffles Place, OUE Bayfront, Lippo Plaza and OUE Downtown Office, located in Singapore and Shanghai.

As at 31 March 2019, committed office occupancy at both OUE Bayfront and One Raffles Place remained healthy at 97.1% and 96.5%, respectively, ahead of Singapore’s core Central Business District (CBD) occupancy of 95.2%.

Meanwhile, Lippo Plaza’s committed office occupancy of 90.4% as at Q1 2019, ahead of overall Shanghai CBD Grade A market occupancy of 87.6% as at Q1 2019, whilst committed rents continued to be in line with or higher than market rates.

On 8 April 2019, the managers of both OUE C-REIT and OUE Hospitality Trust (OUE H-Trust) issued a joint announcement on the proposed merger of OUE CREIT and OUE H-Trust by way of a trust scheme of arrangement.

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OUE C-REIT will seek the approval of OUE C-REIT unitholders for the transaction at an extraordinary meeting to be convened. More details on the transaction will be available in the circular to unitholders to be despatched in due course.