Sasseur REIT's DPU up 4.7% to 6.53 cents in 2019

Distributable income also rose 4.7% YoY to $77.9m.

Sasseur Real Estate Investment Trust (Sasseur REIT) saw its distribution per unit (DPU) inch up 4.7% to 6.53 cents in 2019 from 6.24 cents in 2018, according to a press release.

Distributable income also rose 4.7% YoY to $77.9m from $74.5m, whilst its entrusted management agreement (EMA) rental income dipped 1.6% YoY to $122.1m from $124m in 2018.

The annualised distribution yield based on the total DPU for the period was 7.4% at the closing unit price of $0.885 on 31 December 2019, and 8.2% at the IPO offering price of $0.800 was well above the yield of 7.8% forecasted at its IPO in March.

As for its Q4 results, DPU dropped 18.5% YoY from 2 cents to 1.63 cents due to lower income tax expense in Q4 2018, resulting from utilisation of available tax losses in that quarter. Its one-off adjustment in Q4 2018 also lead to statutory reserves being set aside during Q2 and Q3 2018.

Distributable income also fell 17.4% YoY to $19.5m over the same period, whilst EMA rental income grew 0.9% YoY in Q4 to $31.5m.

This growth was driven by combined outlet sales of $279.3m (RMB1.4b) for Q4 2019, 3.4% YoY higher than in 2018. Portfolio occupancy rate for the quarter edged up to 96% from 95.4% in Q3 2019, due to a more active leasing strategy and focused tenant management. Total VIP members for the four malls in the REIT portfolio rose 93% to 1.58 million as of 31 December 2019.