Ascott Residence Trust grabs $174m in foreign properties

Bright outlook up ahead.

Ascott Residence Trust is gearing up for the next quarter where it is expected to have a stronger earnings base and broadened asset size and portfolio.

The Trust announced last week that it has completed the acquisitions of the serviced residence property (SR) in Malaysia and two SRs in China for a total property value of S$173.9m.

An OCBC report indicates that there could be a seasonal uplift, coupled with the completion of ART’s asset enhancement initiatives at several of its SRs such as Ascott Raffles Place Singapore, is likely to drive ART’s RevPAU upwards.

ART delivered a 13.8% YoY increase in revenue to S$88.1m and 8.3% rise in distributable amount to S$33.5m. This was due mainly to incremental contribution from its acquisitions over the past year and stronger performance from its existing properties, especially those in United Kingdom, Spain and Belgium. DPU for the quarter was down 10.6% to 2.19 S cents, but was expected given the larger unit base resulting from the Dec 2013 rights issue and one-off item amounting to S$4.0m in 2Q13.