Introducing fresh retail concepts and organising more shopper-centric initiatives weren’t enough to prevent a 5.7 per cent fall in net property income (NPI) for CapitaLand Malaysia Mall Trust (CMMT) in the first half of this year.  

CapitaLand Malaysia Mall REIT Management (CMRM), which manages the trust, (US$25 million) for the period, down from 110.4 million ($26.8 million).

The company said Gurney Plaza, East Coast Mall and Tropicana City Office Tower turned in stronger performances that partially mitigated lower contributions from the Klang

Valley shopping malls Sungei Wang, 3 Damansara and The Mines.

But David Wong, CMRM’s chairman, was positive about the trust’s future prospects despite the decline. 

“Amid a challenging operating environment, we are optimistic that the underlying strength of CMMT’s portfolio of quality malls will continue to deliver sustainable income distributions for unitholders in the long term.

“We continue to reinforce our efforts in strengthening the appeal of CMMT malls through proactively managing lease renewals, introducing fresh retail concepts and organising more shopper-centric initiatives.”

Low Peck Chen, CMRM’s CEO, said during the first half of the year Gurney Plaza and East Coast Mall continued their steady performance to chart year-on-year revenue growth. 

“Our Klang Valley malls remain affected by the growing supply of retail space. Sungei Wang and The Mines were further impacted by downtime from asset enhancement works and vacancies.

“The Jumpa lifestyle zone in Sungei Wang is on track to open by end-September. The new retail concepts at Jumpa will complement the existing offerings in the Bukit Bintang- Kuala Lumpur City Centre shopping belt and help to revitalise and boost the appeal of Sungei Wang,” she said. 

“For The Mines and 3 Damansara, we are focusing on strengthening their tenant mix in key trade categories to enhance their positioning as necessity shopping malls.”