KUALA LUMPUR: Axis Real Estate Investment Trust (Axis-REIT) is maintaining strong optimism for 2024, on the back of satisfactory performance of its existing portfolio.

       Looking at its books for the fiscal year ended Dec 2023, the investment manager had a strong final quarter (4Q23) which saw net profit almost doubling year-on-year (y-o-y), or increased by 84% to be exact to RM110.2mil

       Realised property net earnings was RM42.3mil for the quarter ended Dec 31 2023, representing a strong 14.2% y-o-y growth from the corresponding three months of 2022.

       However, an unrealised change in fair value of investment properties of RM81.3mil for the quarter in review – nearly threefold of the RM27.8mil seen in the same quarter of the previous year – has propped up the net profit figure.

       This translated into an earnings per share (EPS) of 6.33 sen, a huge improvement from the EPS of 3.65 sen for 4Q22, as Axis-REIT declared an interim dividend of 2.4 sen for the quarter, bringing its total dividend declared for the year ended Dec 31, 2023 to 8.65 sen.

       Revenue for 4Q23 has also escalated 6.5% y-o-y to RM75.6mil.

       Meanwhile, for the whole of 2023, the investment manager saw net profit grow by 14.4% y-o-y to RM217.8mil, as turnover also grew marginally to RM286mil.

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       Compared with the preceding three months ended Sept 30, Axis-REIT said its property revenue climbed 5.1% from RM72.1mil, which it attributed to higher occupancy of its existing portfolio and the commencement of lease for Bukit Raja Distribution Centre 2 as well as lower property expenses due to reduced maintenance cost. This in turn saw quarter-on-quarter net earnings rise by 11.8% from the RM37.9mil it garnered for the three months ended September 2023.

       The property investment manager is confident in its growth strategy to pursue additional quality investments, which it said help to maintain its performance for the current financial year.

       Axis-REIT also revealed in a filing with Bursa Malaysia in conjunction with the results release as at Dec 31, 2023, its property portfolio remained at 62 properties, which was then increased to 63 on Jan 16 this year following the acquisition of Axis Hypermarket in Temerloh, Pahang.