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Gross revenue, however, jumped 14.2% year-on-year to $29.53 million from $25.86 million previously. Net property income also increased 11.1% year-on-year to $27.2%.
EC World Real Estate Investment Trust (ECW) saw its distribution per unit (DPU) for the fourth quarter ended 31 December 2020 drop 5.5% to 1.427 Singapore cents, from 1.51 cents over the same period in 2019.
Gross revenue, however, jumped 14.2% year-on-year to $29.53 million from $25.86 million previously. Net property income also increased 11.1% year-on-year to $27.2%.
ECW attributed the hike in gross revenue and net property income to organic rental escalations and appreciation of the RMB against the Singapore dollar.
Distribution to unitholders fell 5% year-on-year to $11.5 million.
Given the uncertainties brought about by the pandemic, ECW’s manager opted to retain 10% of the total amount available for distribution. The DPU will be paid out on 31 March.
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The manager also decided not to receive its performance fee for 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020.
As at 31 December 2020, ECW’s portfolio occupancy stood at 99.3%, with a weighted average lease to expiry of around 3.4 years (by gross rental income) and 2.9 years (by net lettable area).
“About 15.8% of gross rental income will be due for renewal in FY2021, of which, 3.8% of the gross rental income is derived from the lease expiring in May 2021 by China Tobacco,” said ECW in an SGX filing.
It added that the manager has commenced negotiations of the lease renewal with China Tobacco.
As at 31 December 2020, ECW registered “an aggregate leverage of 38.1% with a blended running interest rate of 4.2% for Q4 FY20 and a weighted average debt maturity of 1.6 years”.
“To mitigate currency risk, the manager hedged 100% of the interest rate risk of ECW’s offshore loans using floating to fixed interest rate swaps and cross currency swaps,” said ECW.
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