FIRST Real Estate Investment Trust (First Reit)’s distribution per unit (DPU) for the first quarter ended March has fallen 6.1 per cent on year to 0.62 Singapore cent from 0.66 cent in Q1 2022.

On Tuesday (Apr 25), the healthcare-focused trust’s manager said this was largely due to higher financing costs and the depreciation of foreign currencies against the Singapore dollar.

Rental and other income for Q1 was up 4.9 per cent to S$26.8 million, from S$25.5 million the previous year. Net property and other income rose 2.7 per cent year on year to S$25.8 million from S$25.2 million. 

The topline growth came on the back of full-quarter contributions from First Reit’s nursing homes in Japan acquired over 2022.

Higher rental income from First Reit’s Indonesia and Singapore properties also boosted overall income contributions for the quarter. 

This was however offset by the absence of rental income from Siloam Hospitals Surabaya, which was divested in September 2022, along with the depreciation of foreign currencies against the Singapore dollar. 

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The distributable amount for Q1 was S$12.7 million, up 8.3 per cent from S$11.7 million in Q1 2022.

The Reit’s unit base was 0.8 per cent higher than in Q1 2022 after issuing 421.1 million new units to partially fund its acquisition of 12 nursing homes in Japan.

It has fixed or hedged 62.8 per cent of its debt as at Mar 31, 2023.

The manager said it believes the Reit is “well-positioned to ride the tailwinds in the healthcare sector to deliver sustainable distributions” going forward.

Units of First Reit : AW9U 0% ended Monday flat at S$0.255.