MREIT declares 1st tranche of quarterly dividends

MANILA, Philippines — MREIT Inc., the REIT company of Megaworld, has declared dividends of P0.243 per share payable on May 31 to stockholders on record as of May 10, 2022.

MREIT, in a statement, said the latest tranche of dividends is higher than the previous quarter’s P0.2399 per share, reflecting the resiliency of the company’s property portfolio.

MREIT president and CEO Kevin Tan said the dividend is just the first tranche of the total amount the company aims to distribute for this year.

“Not including the impact of the acquisitions scheduled for this year, we are looking at declaring dividends amounting to P1 per share, which translates to a 6.2 percent dividend yield versus our IPO price. At current prices, the yield is at 5.7 percent,” Tan said.

MREIT said its P0.243 per share dividends to its shareholders is based on its income for the first quarter of 2022, which the company has yet to disclose.

MREIT’s dividend policy contemplates quarterly distribution of dividends.

The Andrew Tan-led company, which listed in the stock market only in October last year, posted a net income of P2 billion in the six months to December 2021.

The P2 billion is inclusive of a fair value gain on MREIT’s investment properties of P702 million.

The company’s s board of directors earlier declared dividends amounting to P0.24 per share for the fourth quarter of 2021.

MREIT earlier announced an expanded acquisition plan for the year amounting to P20 billion, with the deed of exchange for the initial acquisition of four prime properties worth P5.3 billion already signed between the company and sponsor Megaworld.

The new acquisitions will have a total gross leasable area of 44,567 square meters, which will increase the company’s asset portfolio by 16 percent to 325,000 square meters gross leasable area from the current portfolio of 280,000 square meters.

The property infusions include Festive Walk 1B and Two Global Center in Iloilo Business Park, and One West Campus and Five West Campus in McKinley West, Taguig City.

“We firmly believe that the benefit to MREIT investors goes beyond the dividend that they will get as we target to deliver a total return of at least 10 percent per annum over the next three years,” Tan said.

“Our current acquisition plan is key to our achieving, if not outperforming this target,” he said.

Once the new acquisitions are completed, MREIT’s portfolio will cover 18 office properties in four Megaworld premier townships.