Sasseur REIT EMA rental income slips 1.4% in Q1 2024 due to weak yuan

Outlet sales also fell 2.6%.

Sasseur REIT reported a 1.4% decline in its Entrusted Management Agreement (EMA) rental income to $32.6m due to a weaker yuan against the Singaporean dollar in the first quarter of 2024 (Q1 2024). 

According to a regulatory filing, Sasseur REIT said the yuan was down 2.5% from a year ago. 

However, Q1’s EMA rental income in yuan was up 1.2% to RMB172.6m. Broken down, fixed component income was up 3% to $21.55m (RMB115.2m), whilst variable component was down 2.2% to $10.74m (RMB57.4m) due to higher sales base from a year ago arising from pent-up demand in retail spending, and post-re-opening of the economy, the manager said. 

Meanwhile, Sasseur REIT’s outsales also fell 2.6% to $235.7m (RMB1.26b). The biggest contributor was Chongqing Liangjiang accounting for 51.7%, followed by Hefei (23.5%), Kunming (16.2%), and Chongqing Bishan (8.6%). 

Based on the filing, only the Hefei outlet recorded growth in sales, which was due to newly curated tenants and tenant mix adjustments, the manager said. 

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The REIT has changed to half-yearly distributions from quarterly distributions with effect from FY 2024 to save compliance costs and administrative resources required for quarterly distributions 

Also starting FY 2024, the manager said that 20% of its base management fees will be in cash, and 80% in units. Performance fee will be 100% cash, it added. 

RMB1= S$0.18