Ascott Residence Trust mulls over selling Japan, China properties

It's looking at more funding options.

According to DBS, Ascott Residence Trust's underlying 4Q16 revenue and net property income (NPI) grew 6% and 3% y-o-y respectively, mainly due to the boost from the acquisition of Sheraton Tribeca

New York Hotel in early 2016 as well as 2% increase in overall group revenue per available unit (RevPAU). 

Here's more from DBS:

Ahead of the contracted acquisition of Ascott Orchard for c.S$359m later this year, ART guided that as part of its funding options, it may consider selling some of the Japan rental properties as well as the serviced apartments in Tier 2 cities in China.

These properties may not provide sufficient medium term growth for ART. Based on the latest valuation, we estimate ART could raise around S$350m.

Nevertheless, we believe there remains a risk that ART raises equity to strengthen its balance sheet to remove the negative credit watch by Moody’s.