MREIT, Inc., the real estate investment trust of the country’s largest office landlord Megaworld Corp., is set to declare a cash dividend of at least P0.24 per share this month after posting higher revenues in the third quarter of the year.
In a statement, MREIT said its revenues improved six percent to P711.2 million last quarter, on the back of higher rental income amounting to P583.7 million, or five percent higher than the target set in the REIT Plan.
The period signified MREIT’s first full quarter of operations since it acquired 10 prime, grade A office assets from Megaworld last June.
Because of this, MREIT said it is preparing to declare dividends within October in line with the REIT plan.
Subject to necessary Board and regulatory approvals, the company is looking at declaring dividends of at least P0.24 per share.
“The is just the initial tranche of dividends that we intend to declare for the current fiscal year 2022,” said MREIT President and CEO Kevin L. Tan.
He noted that, “Considering MREIT’s strong performance to date, as well as our improved outlook on office demand and the infusions of additional assets, 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 to MREIT.”
MREIT earlier announced its plan to double its portfolio size by 2024, and to reach one million square meters in floor size by 2030. Next year, around 100,000 square meters of prime office assets will be injected into MREIT.
The company also announced its plan to inject more assets from Uptown Bonifacio in BGC aside from the assets coming from Eastwood City, McKinley Hill, and Iloilo Business Park.
According to the report released by Leechiu Properties in June, BGC still commands the highest rental rates among major business districts in the country.
Backed by its access to Megaworld’s extensive office portfolio, MREIT aspires to be one of, if not, the largest office REIT in Southeast Asia because of the company’s long runway for growth.