Sunway REIT shows better results despite hotel's closure

Sunway Pyramid Hotel underwent a RM125mil remodeling work to meet the demand for higher quality accommodations for business and leisure travelers in Sunway City.

KUALA LUMPUR: Sunway Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) chalked up a 9% growth in net property income (NPI) to RM98.52mil for the fourth financial quarter (Q4) ended June 30, 2017.

The retail-focused REIT, whose interim financial results were announced to Bursa Malaysia on Thursday, barely showed a dent in its Q4 performance despite a disruption in income contribution from Sunway Pyramid Hotel. The hotel, closed for refurbishment in April 2016, opened progressively since November 2016.

In fact, NPI growth was seen across all major business segments - retail, hotel, office and leasing of premises to Sunway Medical Centre - and overall revenue jumped 7% to RM132.54mil.

The REIT’s manager, Sunway REIT Management Sdn Bhd, also reported a whopping 78% growth in net profit to RM218.84mil, but this was mainly due to a 144% jump in unrealised income arising from asset revaluation.

The unrealised profit, mainly attributable to fair value gain on investment properties, totalled RM152.1mil versus RM63.5mil a year earlier after accounting for capital expenditure incurred,. However, it was partially offset by fair value loss from interest rate swap of RM0.1mil.

For the financial year ended June 30, 2017, revenue expanded by 3% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM522.87mil while NPI increased 4% to RM388.8mil.

In a statement, Sunway REIT Management said the revenue was boosted by “stronger-than-expected” performance from the retail and hotel segments in Q4, resilient performance from the retail segment throughout the financial year and gradual improvement in the office segment.

Sunway REIT Management declared a final income distribution of 2.27 sen per unit (of which 1.45 sen per unit is taxable and 0.79 sen per unit is non-taxable and 0.03 sen per unit is tax exempt) for the fourth quarter ended June 30, 2017 (Q4 FY16: 2.12 sen).

Distribution per unit (DPU) for the entire financial year was marginally higher at 9.19 sen compared to 9.18 sen in the preceding year.

Sunway REIT Management chief executive officer Datuk Jeffrey Ng said: “I am pleased to share that we managed to report a marginally higher DPU than the previous financial year despite the income disruption arising from the  closure of Sunway Pyramid Hotel. It is indeed a better-than-expected set of financial results for this financial year.”