MREIT’S OFFICES BEAT REVENUE TARGET

Newly-listed real estate investment trust MREIT Inc. outperformed its revenue target in the quarter ending September—its first full quarter of operating its current portfolio of assets—by 6 percent to reach P711.2 million.

This was on the back of better-than-expected office rental income, which delivered P583.7 million in revenues for the quarter, 5 percent better than the target stated in the REIT plan.

This is seen to allow the REIT sponsored by property developer Megaworld Corp. to declare dividends this October.

Subject to necessary board and regulatory approvals, MREIT is looking to declare dividends of at least 24 centavos per share, the company said in a recent statement.

“This is just the initial tranche of dividends that we intend to declare for the current fiscal year 2022. Considering MREIT’s strong performance to date, as well as our improved outlook on office demand and the infusions of additional as sets, we are confident of our ability to meet, if not surpass, our dividend projection for the year as indicated in our REIT plan. We thank all our investors for the trust and confidence in MREIT,” said MREIT president Kevin Tan.

MREIT expects to deliver a dividend yield of at least 5.65 percent for 2022 and 6.1 percent for 2023.

The company also earlier announced its plan to double its portfolio size by 2024, and to reach one million square meters in floor size by 2030. In 2022, around 100,000 square meters of prime office leasable space will be injected into MREIT.

MREIT had also announced its plan to inject more assets in Uptown Bonifacio aside from the assets coming from Eastwood City, McKinley Hill and Iloilo Business Park.

Backed by its access to Megaworld’s extensive office portfolio, MREIT aspires to be one of the largest office REITs in Southeast Asia.