CAPITALAND China Trust : AU8U 0% (CLCT) recorded a 7.7 per cent drop in net property income (NPI) to 313.1 million yuan (S$58.8 million) for the first quarter from 339.1 million yuan in the same period last year.

The manager said in a business update on Wednesday (Apr 24) that this was mainly due to lower contributions from logistics parks and the absence of a one-off property tax refund from CLCT’s business parks.

NPI from the real estate investment trust’s (Reit) retail portfolio inched up 0.1 per cent to 220.1 million yuan, while new economy NPI fell 22 per cent to 93 million yuan.

In Singapore-dollar terms, NPI was down 11.8 per cent year on year due to the depreciation of renminbi against the Singdollar.

Gross revenue, meanwhile, was down 1.6 per cent to 468.1 million yuan from 475.5 million yuan.

Retail gross revenue was up marginally by 0.6 per cent to 334.5 million yuan, while gross revenue from new economy assets fell 6.6 per cent to 133.6 million yuan.

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Excluding contributions from CapitaMall Shuangjing and CapitaMall Qibao in Q1 2023, retail gross revenue would have increased 5.7 per cent year on year, the manager said.

The Reit’s gearing stood at 40.8 per cent as at Mar 31, 2024, down from 41.5 per cent as at Dec 31, 2023. Its weighted average lease expiry by gross rental income was 1.8 years and 2.1 years by net lettable area.

CLCT’s units closed 2.2 per cent or S$0.015 lower at S$0.68 on Wednesday.