Sunway REIT 3Q profit rises 6% to RM58.5m

by **Cals** Tue 29 Apr 2014, 22:25

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Jeffrey Tan of theedgemalaysia.com

Tuesday, 29 April 2014 19:26

KUALA LUMPUR (Apr 29): Sunway Real Estate Investment Trust’s (REIT) net profit rose 6% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM58.5 million in the third quarter ended Mar 31, 2014, from RM55.2 million.

Revenue rose 1.5% y-o-y to RM108.1 million from RM106.4 million.

Sunway REIT said it proposed an interim income distribution of 2.10 sen, comprising taxable and non-taxable/tax exempt amount of 1.71 sen and 0.39 sen respectively.

In a statement to the stock exchange, the REIT said the higher net profit was primarily attributable to higher net property income from the retail segment and lower finance costs.

Sunway REIT said its finance costs fell mainly due to lower amortisation of loan upfront expenses and reduction in underwriting fee for the Commercial Papers programme.

For the nine-month period, net profit chalked RM175.9 million versus RM163.4 million in the previous corresponding period, while revenue recorded RM318.6 million from RM312.0 million a year ago.

The REIT said the higher net profit was primarily attributable to the full nine months income contribution from Sunway Medical Centre and higher net property income from the retail segment.

“The REIT manager is of the view that distribution per unit may be lower due to the softer outlook for the hotel and office segments,” said Sunway REIT.

“However, the REIT manager is committed to distribute 100% of its distributable net income for FY14 and will endeavour to grow the net asset value over a longer period of time,” it said.