Filinvest REIT Corporation (FILRT), the real estate investment trust of the Gotianun Group, registered a 24 percent growth in net income to P894 million in the first nine months of 2024 from P721 million in the same period last year as its occupancy rate recovers.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), the firm said it registered revenues of P2.1 billion in January to September of the year, a reduction of seven percent from P2.2 billion in the same period in 2023.
FILRT said this is mainly due to the temporary drop in occupancy in the first quarter brought about by the rightsizing of some tenants because of the hybrid work alternative.
The drop was partially offset by the three percent drop in cost and expenses to P953 million with the continued prudence in managing the company’s resources.
The company’s portfolio of 17 office buildings and one resort lot totaling 330,448 square meters had an occupancy of 83 percent as of end-September 2024, which is the same level as of the end of 2023.
FILRT has been proactively rebuilding its portfolio’s occupancy and diversifying its tenant base by signing new traditional companies to replace the BPO tenants that have downsized due to the shift to work-from-home or hybrid set-ups of its employees.
“We are happy to note that we have been able to recover the occupancy we lost at the start of the year. We are now focusing our efforts in signing up more new tenants as we endeavor to further improve FILRT’s occupancy,” said FILRT President and CEO Maricel Brion-Lirio.
“Aside from tenant diversification, we are also mindful that we have well spread-out lease expiries to provide stability in our income generation,” she added.
Weighted average lease expiry of the portfolio is 7.4 years.
Meanwhile, the Board of Directors of FILRT has approved the declaration of P303 million in cash dividends for the third quarter of 2024, bringing the year-to-date dividends to P1.24 billion.
The FILRT board approved the dividend declaration to all stockholders amounting to P0.062 per outstanding common share for the third quarter this year.
This declaration is the same level as the previous quarter, with dividends declared this year totaling P0.253 per outstanding common share. The year-to-date dividends are equivalent to an annualized yield of 8.3 percent based on the closing share price on Nov. 5, 2024.
The latest cash dividends will be payable on Dec. 6, 2024 to all stockholders on record as of Nov. 20, 2024.