SINGAPORE (April 28): The manager of Viva Industrial Trust (VIT) has declared a distribution per stapled security (DPS) of 1.854 cents, 13.2% higher from the 1.638 cents announced in the previous year.
Gross revenue for the quarter grew 24.9% to $27.4 million as compared to $21.9 million a year ago, mainly due to additional revenue contributions from 6 Chin Bee Avenue and 30 Pioneer Road, which were acquired in 2017 and 2016 respectively.
This was in addition to higher rental and other income contribution from Viva Business Park (VBP), which arose mainly from its retail units and its contestable electricity bulk purchase program, as well as higher rental and other income contributions from UEBH.
Net property income (NPI) for the quarter came in at $20.3 million, growing 28.8% from $15.8 million in 1Q16.
As such, distributable income grew 25.9% to $17.8 million from $14.1 million in the previous year.
Based on VIT’s closing price of 79.5 cents on March 31, the 1Q17 annualised DPS of 7.519 cents translates to a high annualised distribution yield of 9.5%.
“The 1Q2017 results demonstrate our commitment to provide our stapled securityholders with stable distributions driven by our yield accretive acquisitions and the successful asset enhancement initiative (AEI) project at VBP,” says Wilson Ang, CEO of the manager.
With regards to the recent liquidation filed by Jackson International, Ang says he does not expect the matter to have a material impact on the financials or distributions of VIT for the current financial year.
(See also: Jackson Square integrated manager seeking liquidation: Viva Industrial REIT)
“Even as our past investments have started to bear fruit, we will remain focused on enhancing VIT’s fundamentals and align our strategic initiatives to cater to the changing business demands in Singapore such as riding on the transformation of Singapore’s future economy. We will also continue to seek out good quality assets and pursue accretive inorganic growth opportunities that will deliver stable distributions and attractive returns to VIT’s stapled security holders,” he adds.
Units of VIT closed flat at 80 cents on Thursday.
