CapitaLand Retail China Trust’s income jumps by 4.5% to $22.2m

Thanks to favorable forex gains.

A weaker CNY proved the boost to CapitaLand Retail China Trust, as gross revenue in CNY terms rose by 2.5% to CNY256.5m.

According to OCBC, trade mix adjustments at CapitaMall Wuhu also posed a drag, while rental growth in its other multi-tenanted malls continued to be healthy at 4.1%.

“DPU grew 2.7% YoY to 2.71 S cents. Positive gross revenue and NPI growth at most malls Aside from MZLY and Wuhu, CRCT’s multitenanted and master-leased malls delivered positive gross revenue growth of 3.5% YoY and NPI growth of 3.2% YoY in RMB terms in 1Q16,” OCBC said.

Meanwhile, overall portfolio committed occupancy fell 0.5ppt QoQ to 94.6% with most multi-tenanted malls showing a decrease, the report said.

“Tenants’ sales growth clocked a mild growth of 1.0% YoY, while shopper traffic fell 1.4% YoY. Portfolio rental reversions came in at 7.3% in 1Q16, slightly lower than FY15’s 8.1%,” OCBC said.

“Excluding Wuhu, the rental reversion rate would have been 8.1%. We note that for the rest of 2016, MZLY has 33.0% of its leases (as a percentage of the mall’s rental income) expiring while Wuhu has 19.4%; this may continue to exert a drag on CRCT’s rental reversions for FY16,” OCBC added.