DDMP REIT CORE NET PROFIT UP 5.89% IN 2020

Newly-listed DoubleDragon Meridian Park real estate investment trust (DDMP REIT) Inc. reported a 5.89-percent growth in core net income last year to P1.32 billion as rental earnings were boosted by new tenants as the overall leasing portfolio expanded.

Including nonrecurring items such as fair value gains for the year, the REIT of DoubleDragon

Properties Corp. saw a 24-percent drop in net income to P5.09 billion.

Rental income booked in 2020 amounted to P1.91 billion, an increase of 7.61 percent from the level in the previous year.

Higher core earnings were attributed to additional new tenants in DoubleDragon Center West and the full-year contribution of DoubleDragon Center East, two buildings in its DD Meridian head office complex.

This REIT includes in its portfolio the first six completed buildings in DDMP, alongside the land on which these buildings stand.

P365M in dividends

Meanwhile, DDMPR’s board approved a cash dividend to all shareholders as of record date of April 28 amounting to P365.06 million or 2.048 centavos per share to be paid on May 10.

“We are glad to conduct the DDMPR cash dividend declaration today from the business operations of the last quarter of 2020. The next round for the first quarter of 2021 is expected to be declared next month for payment in June 2021,” DDMPR chair Edgar Sia II said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

“We expect the cash dividend value of DDMPR to start to benefit from the REIT incentives by the second quarter of this year since DDMPR only became a REIT company last month,” Sia added.

DDMPR recently raised P14.7 billion from an initial public offering (IPO), the first in the local stock market for this year.

Fund for dev’t, expansion

REIT is a corporation that primarily invests in income-generating real estate such as office spaces, shopping malls, service apartments, and even hotels, hospitals and warehouses. It gives investors an opportunity to invest directly in the finished projects rather than the developer itself. This was meant to attract dividend-seeking investors because the REIT law required the distribution of at least 90 percent of income as dividends annually.

The REIT Act, passed by Congress in 2009, allows REIT companies to list and trade its shares of stock, allowing developers to recycle capital for further property development and expansion initiatives.