Ascott Residence Trust's distributable income down 43% in FY2020

Its Singapore and Vietnam properties gave lower contributions.

Ascott Residence Trust (ART) posted distributable income of $94.2m in FY2020, a 43% decline from the $165.5m it reported for FY2019, the trust announced in a press release.

Revenue for the period totalled $369.9m, or 28% lower than the $514.9m in the previous fiscal year.

Full year distribution per stapled security declined 60% YoY to 3.03 cents from 7.61 cents in 2019.

The trust faced challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to lower revenue contributions from its existing portfolio as well as lower contribution from the Somerset Liang Court Singapore and Somerset West Lake Hanoi in Vietnam.

During the second half of 2020, ART’s distributable income came at $61.7m, 32% lower than the $90.0m in H2 2019. It also reported $161.4m in revenue, a 39% decrease from H2 2019’s $266.6m revenue. DPU for the period is 1.99 cents.

To mitigate the impact of COVID-19, replace income loss from divested assets, and share past divestment gains with stapled securityholders, ART is distributing a one-off partial divestment gain of $40m to stapled securityholders. ART also released the $5m of distributable income which was retained in H1 2020.

“As part of our capital recycling strategy, we have divested two properties at the end of last year with two more to be completed in Q1 2021, all at a premium to their book values,” said Bob Tan, chairman of Ascott Residence Trust Management Limited and Ascott Business Trust Management.

Also Read: Ascott Residence Trust sells two serviced residences for $191.4m

Proceeds from the sale of these properties will be deployed into higher yielding assets, he added.

Meanwhile, ART’s expansion of their investment mandate to include student accommodation assets and acquisition of our first student accommodation asset “will bolster our resilience and increase our stable income stream,” according to Tan. In particular, Tan said that they will look for opportunities to invest in longer stay lodging assets with longer weighted average lease expiry.

Also Read

One Sophia sells 30% of units at weekend launch

Turf City sites could deliver up to 800 public housing units: Huttons

Since you're here...

...there are many ways you can work with us to advertise your company and connect to your customers. Our team can help you dight and create an advertising campaign, in print and digital, on this website and in print magazine.

We can also organize a real life or digital event for you and find thought leader speakers as well as industry leaders, who could be your potential partners, to join the event. We also run some awards programmes which give you an opportunity to be recognized for your achievements during the year and you can join this as a participant or a sponsor.

Let us help you drive your business forward with a good partnership!

I want to download the media kit