This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE Bunnings Warehouse Property Trust has defied market uncertainty by recording a strong income growth of 7.3% to $78.5 million for the full-year to June 30.
BWP attributed the result to increases in rental income from rent reviews, and income from new acquisitions and developments completed last year.
Distributable profit for the year was $50.4 million, an increase of 24.6% on the distributable profit last year; although last year’s profit was affected by the one-off costs of approximately $3.3 million associated with debt reduction from proceeds of the $150 million capital raising in May 2009.
Distributable profit, excluding unrealised gain, was $41.8 million.
At the same time, finance costs fell 10.1% to $19.1 million due to a lower average level of debt, in spite of the higher average cost of borrowings. The average level of debt was 38.1% lower at $198.2 million compared with $320.2 million for 2009, as a result of debt reduction following the $150 million capital raising in May 2009.
The trust’s total assets were $1.02 billion up from $999.9 million. As a result, net tangible asset backing was $1.88 per unit, an increase of 2.7% from $1.83 per unit at December 2009 and $1.79 at June 2009.
Gearing ratio (debt to total assets) fell to 18.8% from 22.6%.
A final distribution of 5.98 cents per ordinary unit has been declared taking the total distribution for the year to 12.08 cents per unit, a 4.4% increase on last year.
Australian Property Journal
