- Lendlease Global Commercial REIT (SGX:JYEU)’s 3QFY24 business updates indicate operations remain steady amid a challenging funding environment.
- Portfolio occupancy inched up as new leases were signed in Sky Complex, Milan. Malls in Singapore maintained near-full occupancy with mid-teens rent reversions. However, gearing and funding cost inched up due to capex drawdown and hedge repricing.
- - Read this at SGinvestors.io -
Resilient operations
- Portfolio occupancy was 88.8%, inching up from 87.9% in 2QFY24. This was on the back 8.1% of the NLA of Building 3 of Sky Complex securing commitments at market rents. Retail portfolio occupancy was 99.4% vs 99.6% in 2QFY24.
- Tenant sales increased 2.6% y-o-y in 3QFY24, reversing from a decline in 2Q. Footfall increased 6.1% y-o-y in 3Q.
- - Read this at SGinvestors.io -
Gearing & funding cost up; pose downside risk to distribution
- Lendlease REIT's gearing rose from 40.5% to 41% as ~S$20m of debt was drawn down for capex in Sky Complex Building 1 and 2. According to management, tenant Sky Italia also contributed to the capex. Funding cost increased from 3.37% to 3.5% q-o-q and the adjusted interest coverage ratio fell to 1.8x from 1.9x.
- We expect Lendlease REIT's gearing and funding cost to rise as capex related to Building 3 is drawn down unless it is funded from the ~S$13m of supplementary rental income received from the restructuring of leases. That in turn will pose downside risk to distribution.
- While management can acquire an incremental stake in Parkway Parade, divestment is more in focus. Enquiries have been fielded for the Jem office component, though management is seeking a more optimal price.
- Interestingly, last week Lendlease REIT set up a S$500m multi-currency Euro commercial paper programme to issue short-term (less than a year) notes.
Maintain BUY
- Read more at SGinvestors.io.
Above is the excerpt from report by Maybank Research.
Clients of Maybank Securities may be the first to access the full report in PDF @ https://www.maybanktrade.com.sg/.
Krishna Guha Maybank Research | https://www.maybank-ke.com.sg/ 2024-05-07
Read also Maybank's most recent report:
2024-08-07 Lendlease Global Commercial REIT - Healthy Operations, Moving Towards Stability.
Price targets by 3 other brokers at Lendlease REIT Target Prices.
Listing of research reports at Lendlease REIT Analyst Reports.
Relevant links:
Lendlease REIT Share Price History,
Lendlease REIT Announcements,
Lendlease REIT Dividends & Corporate Actions,
Lendlease REIT News Articles