About twenty trusts and companies are scheduled to report between Tuesday 27 and Friday 30 October. Iggy and Angela use a made-up row of shops to ask what each type of release contains, which figures to read first, and what a headline distribution per unit can leave out.
About twenty trusts and companies are scheduled to report between Tuesday 27 and Friday 30 October, and the distribution per unit will grab the headlines. But a trust can raise total distributable income and still pay less per unit if it issues more units, so the headline alone can mislead. In this episode, Angela and I use a made-up row of ten shops in Marine Parade to show how to read occupancy, rental reversion, gearing and units in issue before judging any S-REIT result. We also explain why a business update is not the same as full results, and why a blank quarterly distribution may simply reflect a twice-yearly payment schedule.
Key takeaways:
Check the release type and period before reading any figure.
Occupancy and rental reversion show how the properties are performing.
Gearing can rise from about 35% to nearly 39% if property values fall, even without new borrowing.
In the made-up example, income rose 5% but distribution per unit fell nearly 3% after an 8% rise in units.
For hotels, read occupancy together with room rate; for malls, look for tenant sales and shopper traffic where given.
