StarHill Global REIT's income edges up 2.9%

All thanks to robust Singapore sales.

According to OCBC, NPI grew 2.9% YoY to S$37.5m due primarily to strong contribution from its Singapore portfolio. DPU rose at a faster pace of 11.9% to 1.13 S cents on the back of lower interest costs and lower tax expenses. 

This set of results almost coincides with our quarterly NPI forecast of S$37.1m and DPU projection of 1.10 S cents. 

Here's more from OCBC:

We note that ~S$0.6m from the distributable income will be retained for working capital purposes. For the full-year, DPU amounted to 4.39 S cents, up 6.6%.

This translates to a respectable FY12 DPU yield of 5.2%. SGREIT recently proposed to acquire Plaza Arcade in Perth, Australia at an attractive yield of 7.8%, which is expected to contribute positively to its DPU post completion in 1Q13.

Management guided that the gearing ratio is expected to remain very healthy at 31%, up slightly from 30.3% as at 31 Dec 2012.