MREIT Inc., the REIT company of Megaworld Corp., posted distributable income of P1.4 billion in the first half of 2023, up by 12 percent from the same period last year as revenues grew 15 percent to P2.1 billion from P1.8 billion.
The company said the solid growth was boosted largely by the four newly-acquired Grade-A office towers worth P5.3-billion, which began contributing to MREIT’s income starting Jan. 1, 2023.
MREIT declared cash dividends of P0.2476 per share to its shareholders. The dividends will be payable beginning Sept. 14, 2023 to shareholders on record as of Aug. 23, 2023.
Total dividends in the first half stood at P0.4952 per share. Annualized, this brought MREIT’s dividend yield to 7.1 percent, as of the closing share price of P13.86 per share on Aug. 8, 2023.
Owing to MREIT’s quality assets, average occupancy rate improved to 96 percent as of end-June 2023.
This is also significantly higher than the broader office industry’s average occupancy rate of around 82 percent in Metro Manila.
It said of the total occupied space, 79 percent are BPO tenants while 15 percent are traditional office tenants, both of which are made up of high-quality and sticky tenants.
“Our assets continue to deliver despite the excess supply faced by the office industry. We believe the challenges are only temporary and MREIT is ready to capture the coming demand of a recovering office sector as tenants transition back from the work-from-home setup to hybrid or even a full return-to-office setup,” said Kevin Tan, president and chief executive of MREIT.
MREIT and Megaworld signed a memorandum of understanding in June for the potential acquisition of seven Grade A office assets with gross leasable area of around 150,500 square meters. These include buildings located in Megaworld townships McKinley Hill, McKinley West, Iloilo Business Park and Davao Park District.
Once the acquisition is completed, this will increase the GLA of MREIT’s total portfolio by 46 percent to 475,500 sq. m.
“Our high occupancy rate and growing BPO tenant base provide us the foundation for a stable organic growth outlook. In addition, our recently announced asset pipeline will significantly grow MREIT’s assets under management, helping us achieve our vision of growing MREIT into a leading REIT in the country and delivering meaningful growth to our shareholders,” said Tan.
MREIT’s portfolio covers 18 office properties located in four Megaworld premier townships.