MREIT Inc., the real estate investment trust (REIT) company of Megaworld Corp., said Tuesday it registered distributable income of P2.1 billion in the first nine months of 2023, up 13 percent from P1.9 billion in the same period last year.
MREIT said in a disclosure to the stock exchange nine-month revenues grew 15 percent year-on-year to P5.3 billion, driven by acquisition of new assets and continued rental escalations of office tenants.
MREIT acquired four Grade-A office towers worth P5.3 billion this year.
MREIT said its high quality portfolio allowed it to maintain an average occupancy rate of 95 percent as of end-September 2023, above the broader office industry’s average occupancy rate of around 81 percent to 82 percent in Metro Manila.
It said of MREIT’s rented space, 94 percent is composed of reputable business process outsourcing (BPO) and traditional office tenants with long-term commitment to their leases and operations.
“The consistent outperformance of MREIT compared to industry benchmarks while delivering solid results underscore the quality of our assets and their prime locations,” MREIT president and chief executive officer Kevin Tan said.
“We remain committed on sustaining our earnings growth and distributions by ensuring high occupancy and implementing escalations when possible. We are also actively seeking opportunities for growth through strategic acquisitions, so long as the valuations remain beneficial for our shareholders,” Tan said.
MREIT said is looking to further expand its portfolio following the signed a memorandum of understanding with Megaworld for the acquisition of another 7 grade A office assets with a total gross leasable area (GLA) of around 150,500 square meters.
These include buildings in Megaworld townships McKinley Hill, McKinley West, Iloilo Business Park, and Davao Park District.
Once completed, this will hike MREIT’s total portfolio GLA by 46 percent to 475,500 sqm, which is in line with its target portfolio of 500,000 sqm of GLA by end-2024.