CapitaLand Commercial Trust NPI climbed 37.3% to $80.40m in Q3

Thanks to contributions from Asia Square Tower 2 and Gallileo which were acquired in November 2017 and June 2018.

CapitaLand Commercial Trust (CCT) recorded a net property income of $80.40m in Q3, up 37.3% YoY from $58.56m, an announcement revealed. Revenue also jumped 35.6% YoY to $100.51m from $74.15m.

Distributable income rose 13.1% YoY to $82.68m whilst distribution per unit (DPU) grew 8.9% to $0.220.

According to the firm, the gross revenue and NPI growth was backed by the contributions from Asia Square Tower 2 (AST2) and Gallileo which were acquired in November 2017 and June 2018, respectively. The said properties’ contributions offset the loss over the divestments of One George Street (50%), Golden Shoe Car Park and Wilkie Edge in 2017, and Twenty Anson back in August.

“Since assuming ownership of Asia Square Tower 2, CCT has ramped up its occupancy from 90.5% as at 31 December 2017 to 98.1% as at 30 September 2018,” CCT management CEO Kevin Chee said.

Chee also noted that CCT’s Singapore portfolio experienced a committed occupancy of 99.1% in Q3 which is well above the market occupancy level of 94.6%.

“CapitaLand’s strategy involves an integrated offering of conventional workspace (core) and flexible space (flex) with community-driven and tech-enabled workplace solutions that value-add to tenants through their various growth stages,” Chee noted, adding that CapitaLand is confident that their ‘office of the future’ ecosystem will support the firm’s efforts to enhance tenant stickiness in the long run.

The firm noted that consultants expect market rents to continue trending upwards in 2019 given limited gross new supply coming onstream in Singapore CBD.

“For CCT, the rise in market rents is expected to close the gap between expiring and new and renewal rents to be committed for leases expiring in 2019,” they commented.