Filipino-led Citicore Energy REIT Corp. (CREIT), which is the first renewable energy company in the country to undergo real estate investment trust (REIT) listing , posted marginal income growth of just 2.0-percent in the first quarter this year to P304.96 million from P300.30 million last year.
On the revenue front, the company reported that this was up by a heftier 13-percent to P376.45 million within January to March this year; from P331.79 million within the same timeframe in 2022.
According to CREIT, “the increase in lease revenues is mainly driven by new lease contracts from newly acquired parcels of land from the proceeds of the ASEAN green bond issuance in February.” The bonds will mature in February 2028.
It specified that the company’s new lease contracts accounted for 11-percent to the top line figure in the company’s financial performance in the first three months this year.
The firm expounded that its Batangas property “increased CREIT’s land area to 3,400,000 square meters as of March 31, 2023,” hence, that cemented its stature as “the largest landlord for renewable energy real estate properties at 5,400,000 sqm of leasable space.”
It added that “the newly acquired parcels of land of CREIT located in Batangas are leased out to affiliate solar power developers, at 100-percent occupancy.”
Essentially, that will serve as the site of the largest solar farm installation being developed by its sponsor-firm Citicore Renewable Energy Corporation (CREC) – to be implemented in two phases with targeted completion in the next two years.
As emphasized by CREIT President and CEO Oliver Y. Tan, the company’s “investment strategy is focused on adding value-accretive assets to its clean and green real estate portfolio.”
Relative to the bottom line outcome posted by the company within the quarter, CREIT has recently declared dividends of P0.047 per share for this quarter, qualifying that this has been 6.8-per higher compared to last year and the highest so far since its listing in 2022.
Onward, Tan asserted that “we see a clear path to grow CREIT’s green asset portfolio with potential assets for infusion of land parcels coming from CREC's 5GW (gigawatt) project pipeline and commitment to start building one gigawatt every year for the next five years.”