DoubleDragon REIT to distribute dividends as profit rises 41%

DDMP REIT Inc., the real estate investment trust (REIT) arm of business tycoons Edgar “Injap” Sia II and Tony Tan Caktiong’s DoubleDragon Corp., declared its fourth quarter dividend payout to investors as earnings rose last year.

In a statement on Thursday, DDMP REIT announced a P495.85-million quarterly cash dividend, equivalent to P0.028 per share or a yield of 1.85 percent based on the company’s current share price.

Shareholders of record on May 19 would receive the payment on May 31 this year.

“We are pleased that DDMP REIT declared … dividends covering the income generated from the fourth quarter of 2021,” DDMP REIT Fund Managers Inc. president Hannah Yulo-Luccini said in the statement.

She said this brought total dividends from the previous year to P2.21 billion.

“Another round of dividends for the first quarter of 2022 is expected to also be declared this month,” she added.

Accounting practices

The company announced on Thursday that 2021 net income jumped over 41 percent to P7.17 billion, with a big boost coming from the revaluation of its properties. This was to align with accounting practices followed by other REIT companies.

DDMP REIT also pointed to growth in its core businesses via rentals and common use service area fees. The segment grew 13.78 percent to P2.18 billion last year versus 2020.

“We are glad that DDMP REIT has remained resilient and has stably passed through what people say is a once in a lifetime major global crisis brought by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Sia, chair of DDMP REIT, said in the same statement.

He said DDMP REIT offered long-term value to stockholders. He added the company’s per share book value of P2.30 indicated it was a “solid” investment.

“We believe that the most important feature of DDMP REIT is that 100 percent of its leasable space sits on prime commercial titled land that DDMP REIT perpetually owns,” Sia said.

“[A]s over a long period of time, the land value is expected to surpass the value of the building structures, and in the specific case of DDMP REIT, both the titled land and the buildings are owned by the DDMP REIT shareholders forever because the land is titled, and is not a leasehold,” he added.

—MIGUEL R. CAMUS
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