EC World REIT’s Q1 FY2021 Results (guestpost)
This post was originally posted here. The writer, Lim Jun Yuan is a veteran community member and blogger on InvestingNote, with a username known as @ljunyuan and has close to 2,000 followers.
China-based logistics REIT, EC World REIT (SGX:BWCU) released its financial results for the first quarter of the financial year 2021 ended 31 March 2021 after market hours yesterday (11 May 2021.)
The REIT is one of the few that has continued to report its full financial results, along with payout a distribution to its unitholders on a quarterly basis – both of which are something I appreciate as a unitholder.
In this post, you will find key highlights about the logistics REIT’s latest financial results, debt and portfolio occupancy profile, and distribution payouts, along with my personal thoughts to share.
Let’s begin…
Financial Results (Q1 FY2020 vs. Q1 FY2021)
Q1 FY2020 | Q1 FY2021 | % Variance | |
Gross Revenue (S$’mil) |
$23.5m | $30.8m | +30.9% |
Property Operating Expenses (S$’mil) |
$2.4m | $3.1m | +30.3% |
Net Property Income (S$’mil) |
$21.1m | $27.7m | +30.9% |
Distributable Income to Unitholders (S$’mil) |
$9.3m | $12.4m | +32.9% |
From the table above, you can tell that the REIT’s latest quarter results was an improved one across the board.
The improvements in its gross revenue and net property income can be attributed to the absence of rental rebates given out to tenants to help them mitigate the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in the same time period last year, along with the Chinese Renminbi strengthening by 3.5%.
In-line with the improvements in its gross revenue and net property income, the REIT’s distributable income to unitholders also increased by a similar percentage.
Debt Profile (Q4 FY2020 vs. Q1 FY2021)
Next, let us take a look at the REIT’s latest debt profile (recorded for the first quarter of FY2021 ended 31 March 2021), compared against that recorded in the previous quarter three months ago (i.e. Q4 FY2020 ended 31 December 2020) to find out whether it has improved, remained consistent, or deteriorated:
Q4 FY2020 | Q1 FY2021 | |
Aggregate Leverage (%) |
38.1% | 38.3% |
Interest Coverage Ratio (times) |
2.62x | 2.79x |
Average Term to Debt Maturity (years) |
1.6 years | 1.4 years |
Average Cost of Debt (%) |
4.2% | 4.1% |
My Observations: Personally, I felt that the REIT’s debt profile for the current quarter under review, compared to the previous quarter 3 months ago, was a mixed bag – first, the positives (in my opinion): a slight decrease in its average cost of debt, along with its interest coverage increasing slightly; the negatives: its aggregate leverage edging up slightly, along with its average term to debt maturity (which is now at 1.4 years, from 1.6 years in the previous quarter.) …