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New Straits Times
27-05-2025
- Business
- New Straits Times
Al-Salām REIT Q1 NPI rises 8.8pct on strong retail segment performance
KUALA KUMPUR: Al-Salām Real Estate Investment Trust's (REIT) net property income (NPI) rose 8.8 per cent in the first quarter (Q1) ended March 31, 2025, to RM14.9 million from RM13.7 million a year ago. For the quarter under review, Al-Salām REIT's revenue rose 7.5 per cent to RM21.4 million compared to RM19.9 million in the same period last year. "Growth in revenue and NPI was primarily driven by the higher rentals from KOMTAR JBCC, reflecting Al-Salām REIT's strategic focus on optimising asset performance," it said in a statement. According to Al-Salām REIT, its retail mall segment contributed strongly to revenue growth, delivering a revenue of RM12.4 million in Q1 2025 from RM10.9 million in Q1 2024. It said NPI from the retail segment also grew 21.7 per cent year-on-year, from RM6.0 million in Q1 2024 to RM7.3 million in Q1 2025. "The strong performance was primarily attributed to KOMTAR JBCC's improvements in rental income and promotional income, following the reconfiguration of the al-fresco dining zone on the Ground Floor with several F&B tenant openings. "Other assets in the retail portfolio, i.e., @Mart Kempas and Mydin Hypermart Gong Badak, continue to demonstrate resilience as community-focused hypermarkets, providing essential daily provisions," it said. Its chief executive officer, Zulhilmy Kamaruddin, said the first quarter results showed overall improvement, especially in the retail segment, underpinned by KOMTAR JBCC's stronger performance. Zulhilmy said the company expects KOMTAR JBCC to benefit from strong traffic flows once the JB-Singapore RTS Link is completed. "We are committed to revitalising KOMTAR JBCC through AEIs, which include reconfiguration of existing spaces to improve tenant take-up rate and occupancy. "This has garnered strong interest from mini-anchors, which we expect to translate into sign-ups by the end of 2025," he said. Moving forward, Zulhimy said Al-Salām REIT remains focused on delivering sustainable, long-term returns to its unitholders. He said the company is actively managing its capital to address its gearing levels and conducting active portfolio review and optimisation. "With ongoing efforts to drive rental growth and occupancy, we are well-positioned to capitalise on emerging opportunities in the retail and commercial sectors in Johor Bahru," he added.
Malaysian Reserve
19-05-2025
- Business
- Malaysian Reserve
Foreign funds inflow reach daily high on May 13, MSCI drops six stocks
DAILY foreign fund inflows surged to a record-high RM796.1 million on 13 May, a day after the US and China agreed to lower tariffs on each other's products for the next 90 days, marking a de-escalation in the ongoing trade war between the world's two largest economies. Since the reciprocal tariff de-escalation on April 10, CIMB Securities said it has observed a net inflow of foreign funds. To put things in perspective, it said foreign funds' net buy of RM2.6 billion from April 10 to May 14, representing only 21% of the total net sell from Jan 1 to April 9 of RM12.4 billion. 'This suggests there is room for foreign funds to return to the Malaysian equity market, especially in light of the low foreign shareholding of 19.4% and improving market sentiment,' it said in an equity strategy report released today. It said potential sectors that could benefit include those with the largest net foreign outflows year-to-date (YTD) in financial services (with its top picks being Public Bank Bhd, RHB Bank Bhd and Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd), utilities (its top pick: Tenaga Nasional Bhd) and consumers (its top picks: 99 Speed Mart Retail Holdings Bhd and Farm Fresh Bhd). In the same report, CIMB Securities said MSCI's move to remove six stocks from its Malaysia Small Cap Index but keeping the main index constituents unchanged, is expected to have minimal market impact. 'We estimate the affected stocks accounted for 4.4% of the small-cap index's free float-adjusted market cap, with low non-strategic foreign shareholdings. We estimate potential passive fund outflows from these stocks at around RM146 million,' it said. The MSCI Malaysia Index is designed to measure the performance of the large and mid cap segments of the Malaysian market. The index covers about 85% of the Malaysian equity universe. It is tracked by fund managers and foreign investors, with some funds pulling out investments from counters that are no longer featured in the index. The six stocks impacted are British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd, D&O Green Technologies Bhd, Dayang Enterprise Holdings Bhd, Pentamaster Corp Bhd, Berjaya Sports Toto Bhd and UWC Bhd. The development is negative for the excluded stocks, as it could trigger selling by passive funds that closely track the index, the report added. — TMR
