KUALA LUMPUR: MRCB-Quill Real Estate Investment Trust's (REIT) net earnings for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018, fell 9% to RM21mil from RM23.17mil in the year-ago quarter, while gross revenue slid about 5% to RM44.3mil.
The REIT said net property income slipped 7% or RM2.6mil compared to the previous corresponding quarter due to higher property operating expenses.
Manager's fees of RM3.3mil were 1.4% lower compared to the comparative quarter while finance costs of RM9.7mil were also slightly lower.
However, the proposed disposal of Quill Building 8 - DHL XPJ resulted in higher administrative expenses of RM600,000.
After adjusting for the management fee payable in units of RM1.39mil for the quarter, the REIT achieved a distributable income of RM22.4mil, 3.3% less than RM23.16mil recorded in the first quarter of the previous year.
"Correspondingly, MQREIT recorded a distributable income per unit of 2.10 sen which is marginally lower by 3.3% compared to the distributable income per unit of 2.17 sen recorded in 1Q 2017," it said in a filing with the stock exchange.
MRCB-Quill also said it had successfully renewed about 81% of the leases that were due in 1Q2018.