KUALA LUMPUR (April 18): AmFirst REIT, a trust which mainly manages office buildings, said on Thursday its fourth quarter net property income fell 7.82% from a year earlier mainly due to higher property expenses.

Net property income for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2024 (4QFY2024) fell to RM14.5 million from RM15.73 million previously, AmFirst said in an exchange filing. Revenue slipped 0.26% year-on-year to RM25.61 million, from RM25.67 million, due to lower occupancy at several of its properties.

Looking ahead, AmFirst REIT said that the office market remains challenging due to oversupply while the retail sector is expected to grow at a moderate level amid soft consumer demand, given the government’s ongoing review of subsidies as well as an increase in service tax. 

“The manager will continue to adopt appropriate capital and asset management strategies that are centred on intensifying leasing effort, cost optimisation and implementation of selective asset enhancement initiatives to improve the asset portfolio yield,” it added.

For the full year ended March 31, 2024 (FY2024), net property income dropped 2.88% to RM57.21 million from RM58.91 million a year ago, while revenue decreased 1.93% to RM101.43 million as compared to RM103.43 million previously.

A distribution per unit of 1.18 sen was also declared payable on May 31, 2024.

AmFirst REIT owns eight investment properties, namely: Bangunan AmBank Group and Menara AmBank in Kuala Lumpur, Wisma AmFIRST and The Summit Subang USJ in Selangor, Prima 9 and Prima 10 in Cyberjaya, Jaya 99 in Melaka and Mydin HyperMall in Bukit Mertajam.

The portfolio’s average occupancy rate stood at 84.6% as at end-March 2024.

At the time of writing, units in AmFIRST REIT traded half a sen or 1.54% higher at 33 sen, valuing the investment trust at RM223.08 million.