Lendlease REIT's NPI up 4% to $16.6m in Q1 from IPO forecasts

Its DPU rose to 1.28 cents from 1.27 cents.

Lendlease Global Commercial REIT (LREIT) saw its net property income (NPI) inch up 4% to $16.6m in Q1, compared to its IPO forecasts of $15.95m, an announcement revealed. Gross revenue also rose 2.2% to $21.66m in the same quarter from its forecasts.

Also read: Lendlease Global Commercial REIT's NPI hit $16.18m in Q2 FY2020

The growth in gross revenue was driven by rental income from 313@somerset and higher contribution from Sky Complex due to the pick-up in the Euro against the Singapore dollar. Apart from revenue, NPI went up on the back lower property operating expenses, which dipped 3.4% to $5.07m.

Distribution per unit (DPU) rose to 1.28 cents from 1.27 cents in its IPO forecasts, whilst its distributable income edged up 1.2% to $14.97m. LREIT intends to make distributions to unitholders semi-annually and will distribute at least 90% of its adjusted net cash flow from operations for each financial year.

The second distribution will be for the period from 1 January to 30 June and will be paid on or before 30 September. The manager will assess the liquidity of LREIT before determining the final distribution.

As at end-Q1, Lendlease’s portfolio has maintained a high committed occupancy of 99.8%, and a long WALE of 9.9 years by net lettable area (NLA) and 4.9 years by gross rental income (GRI).

The majority of the leases expiring FY2020 by NLA have been renewed, as approximately 80% of its leases by NLA will expire in 2024 and beyond. 313@somerset registered positive rental reversion of 0.6% for the YTD ended 31 March, whilst LREIT’s property in Milan Sky Complex is fully occupied by a single tenant and operates on a triple-net lease structure.