SINGAPORE (Oct 25) The manager of Parkway Life Real Estate Investment Trust (PLife REIT) has announced a DPU of 3.23 cents for 3Q18 ended Sept.

Due to the absence of the one-off distribution of divestment gain, there was a y-o-y decline in overall DPU of 4.1% in 3Q18. However, DPU from recurring operations increased by 2.7% from 3Q17.

DPU for the nine months ended Sept 30 (YTD 3Q18) came in at 9.59 cents.

Gross revenue rose 2.5% y-o-y in 3Q18 to $28.4 million. The increase is mainly due to the contribution from one nursing rehabilitation facility acquired in February 2018 and higher rent from the Singapore properties as compared to the same period last year.

Parkway East Hospital’s adjusted hospital revenue for the 11th year lease (Aug 23 2017 to Aug  22) has outperformed its minimum guaranteed rent, contributing to the increase in revenue from Singapore.

After deducting property expenses, net property income rose 2.5% in 3Q18 to $26.5 million from the year-ago period.

For the YTD 3Q18 period, gross revenue and net property income each edged up 2.3% y-o-y.

As at Sept 30, there were no long-term debt refinancing needs till 2020 and the group enjoys a well spread out debt maturity profile with no more than 30% of total debts due in a single year.

As at Sept 30, PLife REIT has a low all-in cost of debt of 0.94% and its interest rate exposure is largely hedged.

The interest coverage ratio stood healthy at 13.5 times, with optimal gearing at 37.7%.

PLife REIT now has a portfolio of 50 healthcare properties in Singapore, Japan and Malaysia worth
approximately $1.75 billion.

Yong Yean Chau, CEO of PLife REIT’s manager, says, “We remain committed in preserving the resiliency of our earnings within this environment of rising interest rates and market uncertainties. In the past quarter, we have successfully refinanced all loans due in 2019 as part of our liquidity risk management strategy and continued to manage our exposure to interest rate and foreign currency risks. This has been done to enhance the defensiveness of PLife REIT's balance sheet, to safeguard the stability and resiliency of our distributions to unitholders.”

Year to date, units in PLife REIT are down 10.4% at $2.67,