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AnalysisSingapore

12 things to know about Frasers Logistics & Industrial Trust before you invest

Frasers Logistics & Industrial Trust (FLT) (SGX: BUOU) was recently listed on the SGX on 20 June 2016. It is the first SGX-listed REIT that invests solely in industrial properties located in major cities in Australia. In this article, I’ll cover FLT’s development over a period of 20 months after its listing, the potential risks it faces, and discuss its plans towards the immediate future.

Here are the 12 things you need to know about Frasers Logistics & Industrial Trust before you invest.

Track record

1. FLT was listed with an initial portfolio of 51 properties worth A$1.58 billion. The average age of FLT’s portfolio is relatively young at 6.1 years. 90.2% of its portfolio are freehold assets or leasehold assets with long remaining tenures of at least 80 years. 96.5% of its portfolio are located in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane which are well-connected to highways, shipping ports and airports.

2. On 31 August 2016, FLT announced the acquisition of two assets — the Indian Drive Property in Melbourne and the Pearson Road Property in Brisbane for A$69.2 million. The Indian Drive Property is fully leased to Astral Pool Australia Pty Ltd for a term of 15 years. Meanwhile, the Pearson Road Property is fully leased to ACI Operations Pty Ltd for six years.

3. On 30 November 2016, FLT announced the acquisition of the Martin Brower Property in Sydney for A$58.2 million. This property is fully leased to Martin-Brower Australia Pty Ltd for a term of 20 years.

4. On 6 June 2017, FLT announced the acquisition of seven properties for a total sum of A$169.3 million. Four of these properties are completed and fully leased. They are the Yusen Logistics Facility and the Survitec & Phoenix Facility in New South Wales, and the CEVA Tech Facility and the Ecolab Facility in Victoria. Meanwhile, the remaining three properties are still under development and are pre-committed by incoming tenants. They are the Stanley Black & Decker Facility and the Clifford Hallam Facility in Victoria, and the Beaulieu Facility in Queensland. Thus, FLT has enlarged its portfolio to 61 properties.

Jun 2016Sep 2016Dec 2016Mar 2017Jun 2017Sep 2017Dec 2017
Number of properties51535454546161

5. FLT achieved growth in gross revenues and distributable income over the last 12 months. Gross revenues have grown from S$39.7 million in Q1 2017 (the quarter ended 31 December 2016) to S$42.4 million in Q1 2018. Distributable income increased from S$22.9 million in Q1 2017 to S$25.9 million in Q1 2018.

Source: Quarterly Reports of FLT

6. FLT declared 7.01 cents in distribution per unit (DPU) over the last 12 months. As at 1 Dec 2017, FLT is trading at S$1.10 a share. If FLT is able to maintain its DPU, its expected gross dividend yield is 6.37%.

Growth drivers

Here’s a question: how do we assess if Frasers Logistics & Industrial Trust is capable of delivering sustainable growth in gross revenues and distributable income to unitholders in the future?

For REITs, it is pretty simple. I look at four basic factors such as recent purchase of investment properties (I’ve covered that), its tenant base and occupancy rates, its lease expiry profile, and the strength of its sponsor.

I’ve learned the following:

7. As at 30 September 2017, FLT is enjoying a 99.4% occupancy rate for its portfolio. Presently, it derives income from 68 tenants and its top 10 tenants account for 41.5% of FLT’s gross rental income (GRI). Coles is FLT’s single largest and only tenant that accounts for more than 10% of its GRI currently. This indicates that FLT is not substantially reliant on a single tenant or a single piece of property for its source of income.

Top 10 tenants% of GRI
Coles13.4
CEVA Logistics4.9
Schenker4.3
Toll Holdings3.1
TTI3.1
Martin Brower2.9
Mazda2.8
H.J. Heinz2.6
Unilever2.3
Inchcape2.1
Total41.5

Source: FLT’s Results Presentation Q1 2018

8. As of 31 December 2018, 87.2% of FLT’s leases will only expire starting in financial year 2020. This includes new leases or lease renewals for three properties in Q1 2018. They include 20-22 Butler Boulevard in South Australia until August 2024, 51 Stradbroke Street in Heathwood until August 2030 and 38-52 Sky Road East at Melbourne Airport until May 2023. Up to 2026, there is no single financial year that has more than 16% of leases expiring. This provides income stability to FLT over the next decade.

Source: FLT’s Results Presentation 1Q 2018

9. FLT faces the risk of automatic lease termination of 10 properties which are situated in the Melbourne Airport, the Adelaide Airport, and the Perth Airport. The Airport Ground Leases are subjected to the Airports Act 1996 and the Airports (Transitional) Act 1996, collectively known as the Airport Acts. According to the Airport Acts, one of the requirement is that the Airport Ground Leases will terminate automatically in favour of a party that is in a position to exercise control over the whole or substantial part of the relevant properties. If one of the 10 Airport Ground Leases are terminated, it would negatively affect the financial results of FLT. At present, these properties include:

Frasers Logistics & Industrial Trust Airport PropertiesAirport
115 - 121 South Centre RoadMelbourne
96 - 106 Link RoadMelbourne
17 - 23 Jets CourtMelbourne
25 - 29 Jets CourtMelbourne
28 - 32 Sky Road EastMelbourne
38 - 52 Sky Road EastMelbourne
60 Paltridge RoadPerth
5 Butler BoulevardAdelaide
18 - 20 Butler BoulevardAdelaide
20 - 22 Butler BoulevardAdelaide

10. As at 31 December 2018, FLT has total gross borrowings of A$615 million. Its average cost of borrowings is 2.8% per annum. Presently, FLT has a gearing ratio of 30.9% and has an available debt headroom of A$508 million before hitting the 45.0% gearing limit. As such, FLT has an option to finance acquisitions for future growth.

11. FLT is sponsored by Frasers Centrepoint Ltd (FCL), an international real estate corporation listed on the SGX. Besides FLT, Frasers Centrepoint Ltd sponsors three other SGX-listed REITs — Frasers Centrepoint Trust, Frasers Commercial Trust and Frasers Hospitality Trust. As such, Frasers Centrepoint Ltd has built a strong track record in managing and growing listed real estate funds. As I write, Frasers Centrepoint Ltd is a major shareholder of FLT with a 20.28% shareholding.

12. Frasers Centrepoint Ltd also has a wholly-owned subsidiary known as Frasers Property Australia (FPA). FPA developed all of FLT’s properties and is one of the leading property groups in Australia. From 2016 to 2020, FPA has a property development pipeline of A$850 million which FLT enjoys the rights of first refusal. This provides potential growth from future potential acquisitions for FLT.

The fifth perspective

20 months into its listing, Frasers Logistics & Industrial Trust has enlarged its property portfolio and achieved marginal growth in gross revenues and distributable income to unitholders. FLT has built a sustainable portfolio where it does not rely on a single property or a single tenant for substantial income, and has a long and stable lease expiry profile.

Moving ahead, FLT intends to deliver stable, regular and growth in DPU. This is to be achieved from built-in rental increments and positive rental reversions of existing properties and by adopting a combination of strategies such as proactive leasing initiatives, asset enhancement initiatives, selective redevelopment of existing assets, and acquisitions of good quality industrial properties in the future.

Ian Tai

Financial content machine. Dividend investor. Produced 450+ financial articles featured on KCLau.com in Malaysia and The Fifth Person, Value Invest Asia, and Small Cap Asia in Singapore. Regular host and presenter of a weekly financial webinar with KCLau.com. Co-founded DividendVault.com, an online membership site that empowers retail investors to build a stock portfolio that pays rising dividends year after year in Malaysia and Singapore.

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