Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 15th August 2022: ENBD REIT (CEIC) PLC ("ENBD REIT"), the Shari'a-compliant real estate investment trust managed by Emirates NBD Asset Management Limited, has announced its Net Asset Value ("NAV") for its first quarter ended 30th June 2022. ENBD REIT's NAV stood at USD 165.6 million or USD 0.66 per share, as compared to USD 166.9 million cum dividend NAV for the previous quarter. When eliminating the impact of the USD 5 million final dividend payment in July, NAV increased by 2.3%, supported by the first positive quarterly movement in valuations since Q2 2018, which reflect the positive leasing activity across the portfolio and improving real estate market conditions.
The management team continued to successfully improve occupancy in the portfolio to 83% compared to 80% at year end and 75% for the same period in the previous year. The active leasing strategy resulted in some residential assets reaching 100% occupancy whilst the office portfolio level improved to 75% occupancy with further increases expected as leasing is progressing well following the completion of the refurbishments at Al Thuraya 1, ENBD REIT's largest asset.
Anthony Taylor, Head of Real Estate at Emirates NBD Asset Management, said:
"We are pleased to report our first portfolio valuation increase in four years demonstrating the improvements in overall occupancy as well as improved market conditions.
The active asset management efforts and tenant engagements of the past few years to bring further value across our assets are starting to bear fruit. Most notably, the major upgrades at Al Thuraya 1 have been well received with leasing progressing well.
Looking ahead, we believe that the real estate market has now showed consistent signs of having turned the corner whilst the impact of the increasing interest rate environment has been partially mitigated by the successful refinancing of our entire debt facility on favourable terms in late 2021. As mentioned previously, we will continue to review opportunities to recycle capital, including through potential asset disposals where we believe that fair value can be achieved."
ENBD REIT's gross rental income for the period improved slightly to USD 7.5 million whilst the Weighted Average Unexpired Lease Term ("WAULT") stood at 4.21 years for the portfolio. The Loan-to-Value ("LTV") ratio stood at 54.7%.
Whilst the interest rate cycle is set to impact finance costs, ENBD REIT expects this to be partially offset by the improvement in revenue resulting from continued improvements in occupancy rates.
