Cambridge Industrial Trust's net property income slips 8.3% to $19.9m

Blame it on increased maintenance costs.

With the ongoing conversion of some of its single-tenancy units, Cambridge Industrial Trust (CIT) incurred higher expenses in 3Q16 which ultimately send its earnings down 8.3%.

According to the group, its net property income were down to $19.9m compared to $21.7m recorded during the same period last year.

"The decrease was mainly attributed to the conversion of properties from single-tenancy to multi-tenancy, divestment of a property and head lease expiry of a property," CIT said.

Overall, these contributed to the 14.4% jump in property expenses to $7.7million.

This muted earnings may have caused distribution per unit (DPU) to decline 18% from 1.204 Singapore cents last year to 0.987 Singapore cents.

Looking forward, CEO of CIT’s Manager Philip Levinson said the group performed steadily in the past quarter despite the challenging economic environment.

"I am encouraged to report steady progress in our strategy to divest non-core properties and recycle capital to optimise our portfolio and capital structure. In this quarter, we have fully unencumbered our property portfolio and have no major refinancing requirements until 2H2018, which provide us with greater operational and financial flexibility,” he said.