A whole new world: CapitaMall Trust all geared up for street-shop mall vibes

Around 46 shops have already been taken up.

It must have been a very good Wednesday morning for everyone involved with CapitaMall Trust as they released great news about their profits and distributable income. What could have made it better was the fact that CMT's venture into the trendy population is beginning to bear fruit.

According to OCBC, CapitaMall Trust (CMT) released its 2Q14 results this morning. NPI rose by 4.4% YoY to S$114.0m, while distributable income increased 6.5% to S$93.4m.

Here's more from OCBC:

Similarly, DPU for the quarter grew 6.3% to 2.69 S cents. Together with 1Q distribution, 1H14 DPU came in at 5.26 S cents (+5.4% YoY), meeting 47.9% of our full-year DPU forecast. This is well within our expectations, given that S$11.2m taxable income retained in 1H14 is expected to be distributed in the second-half year.

The better performance, we note, was due mainly to higher secured rentals within the portfolio and contribution from IMM Building following the completion of its Phase 1 asset enhancement initiative (AEI). As at 30 Jun, the portfolio occupancy stood at 98.6%.

This represents a marginal decline from 98.8% seen a quarter ago, as a result of ongoing AEIs at several malls. However, positive rental reversion remained robust at 6.6%, led by a 31.2% jump in secured rents at JCube due to a renewal of a mini-anchor tenant lease that was signed in 2005.

Excluding this, we note that reversion was still healthy at 6.2%, unchanged from that registered in 1Q.

Management updated that the ongoing AEIs at Bugis Junction, Tampines Mall and IMM Building are progressing well. Over at JCube, CMT has carved out a 25,000sqft retail zone called J.Avenue to cater to a trendy cluster of shops with street shopping ambience.

J.Avenue is targeted to open progressively from Sep, and to-date, two-thirds of the 70 shops have been taken up. In 3Q, CMT plans to commence refurbishment works at Bukit Panjang Plaza, which includes freeing up ~18,000sqft of commercial GFA and rejuvenating its façade.

Management estimates an ROI of 8.0% upon completion of the AEI in 3Q16. We keep our forecasts largely intact as the results were in line.

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