Manulife US REIT NPI grew 22.2% $152.96m in 2019

Full-year NPI growth was due to the acquisition of its Centerpointe and Capitol assets.

Manulife US Real Estate Investment Trust’s (Manulife US REIT) net property income (NPI) rose 22.2% to $152.96m (US$110.8m) in FY 2019, the company announced. Revenues similarly jumped 23% to $245.6m (US$177.9m) over the same period.

In Q4, NPI rose 18.9% YoY to $41.85m (US$30.31), whilst revenue climbed 20.4% to $67.35m (US$48.78m).

NPI expansion for FY2019 was largely due to contributions from its Centerpointe assets in Fairfox county, Virginia and its Capitol property in Sacramento, Califronia, which were both acquired in 2019. The NPI increase was also attributed to the first full-year contributions of Penn and Phipps, assets in Washington and Atlanta, respectively, which were acquired in 2018.

Manulife US REIT recorded a distributable income of $115m (US$83.3m), a 17.4% increase from 2018. Full-year distribution per unit (DPU) is registered at 8.2 cents (5.96 US cents) for FY2019, a 7% YoY increase.

For Q4, income available for distribution grew 15.5% to $31.2m (US$22.6m) due to the enlarged unit base from the issuance of private placement and preferential offering in relation to the Capitol acquisition. DPU for Q4 declined 5.4% to 2 cents (1.44 US cents), from 2.1 cents (1.53 US cents from the same quarter in the previous year.

The REIT’s nine trophy and class A office properties recorded a high occupancy rate of 95.8% and a weighted average lease expiry (WALE) by net leasable area (NLA) of 5.9 years.

Approximately 445,200 sqft of leases, or 9.5% of the portfolio’s leases by NLA were executed in FY 2019, with a positive rental reversion of 0.5% for the renewals.

The portfolio enjoys overall rental escalations of 2% per annum, as 96% of leases by GRI have some form of rental escalations.

The company is currently running an $11.4m (US$8m) asset enhancement initiative (AEI) for its Figueroa property in Downtown Los Angeles, which is expected to be completed in Q1 2020.