Axis-REIT’s net income more than doubles in 4Q

KUALA LUMPUR: Axis Real Estate Investment Trust’s (Axis-REIT) net income more than doubled to RM99.98mil in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2021 (4Q21) against RM49.27mil posted a year earlier.

Its total trust income in 4Q21 stood at RM62.9mil, up 9.43% from RM57.51mil in 4Q20.

For the full financial year, Axis-REIT’s net income jumped 41% to RM200.36mil against RM142.06mil in the preceding year, driven by a higher gain in fair value of investment properties.

The gain in fair value in FY21 was RM67.8mil against RM19mil in the preceding year.

It posted a 7.8% increase in total trust income to RM242.4mil in FY21 compared with RM224.9mil in the previous year.

The higher income was mainly attributed to the completion of 5 new acquisitions, the commencement of new tenancies at Axis Industrial Facility @ Rawang and positive rental reversion in FY21.

Axis REIT Managers Bhd, the management company of Axis-REIT has proposed to distribute 99% of its realised income available for distribution, generated from operations for the period from Dec 16, 2021 to Dec 31, 2021 as FY21 final income distribution, giving a distribution per unit (DPU) of 0.38 sen.

The 2021 final income distribution will be payable on Feb 28, 2022 and the book closure date is Feb 8, 2022.

In a statement, Axis-REIT said it had completed the acquisition of five properties worth a total of RM223.2mil, raising its total investment properties value to RM3.6bil.

The fund size increased by 13.3% to 1.63 billion units from FY20’s 1.44 billion units upon completion of the placement exercise on Dec 20, 2021 and implementation of the income distribution reinvestment plan.

The number of unitholders in turn expanded by over 55% to 10,521 as at end FY21 from 6,776 as at end FY20.

In a separate filing to Bursa Malaysia, Axis-REIT announced that it had secured Shopee Express Malaysia Sdn Bhd to lease the entire Bukit Raja Distribution Centre 2 (BRDC 2) for a period of 15 years, upon completion of the proposed development of BRDC 2.

The proposed development entails the construction of a single-storey warehouse and ancillary buildings, enhancement of an existing 3-storey office block with a total gross built-up area of approximately 620,096 sq ft.

Axis-REIT said the development work was expected to start in the first quarter of 2022 and to be completed for handover to the Shopee Express latest by Aug 31, 2023.

The estimated development cost (excluding land) of this proposed development is approximately RM130mil.