CapitaMalls Malaysia REIT, the manager of CapitaMalls Malaysia Trust has boosted first quarter income by 2.1 per cent.
According to a stock exchange filing today, CMMT recorded a net property income of RM53.6 million (US$14.49 million) for the quarter to March 31.
It said the increase was primarily due to the contribution from the recently refurbished East Coast Mall in Kuantan.
David Wong Chin Huat, chairman of CMRM, said that despite “a challenging external environment”, the Malaysian economy is expected to continue to grow steadily this year.
“Malaysia’s Gross Domestic Product is forecast to expand by between 4.5 per cent and 5.5 per cent this year, underpinned by strong domestic fundamentals and a resilient export sector. With the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax this month, we expect consumer spending to be cautious as consumers adjust to it. However, we expect that our portfolio of day-to-day necessity shopping malls, which has proven to be resilient during different economic cycles, will continue to deliver steady returns for unitholders.”
Low Peck Chen, CMRM CEO, said that during the quarter East Coast Mall delivered “a solid performance” following the completion of its two-year asset refurbishment last year, registering 15.7 per cent growth in net property income.
“This is a reflection of our expertise in enhancing our assets’ value to further improve returns for our unitholders.
“This year, we also expect to complete our proposed acquisition of Tropicana City Mall and Tropicana City Office Tower, thereby increasing CMMT’s property asset value by approximately 17.3 per cent to about RM3.8 billion, and total net lettable area by approximately 21.6 per cent to about 3 million sqft.
“Despite the temporary impact of the nearby Mass Rapid Transit construction works on Sungei Wang Plaza and other external headwinds, we remain confident that the consistent performances of the other malls in our geographically diversified portfolio will help to cushion the effect and continue to provide stable returns for unitholders,” she said.
The CMMT is a shopping mall-focused real estate investment trust with an income- and geographically-diverse portfolio of four shopping malls: Gurney Plaza in Penang, a majority interest in Sungei Wang Plaza in Kuala Lumpur, The Mines in Selangor and East Coast Mall in Kuantan, Pahang. The portfolio has a total net lettable area of over 2.5 million sqft. Tropicana City Mall will be its fifth property asset.
