LMIR: Foreign exchange forward contracts.

LMIR reported stronger earnings for 3QFY2010. Distributable income at $11.7 million. DPU at 1.09c is higher than the 1.04c in the last quarter. This represents a marginal increase of 4.8% over the previous quarter despite revenue increasing 53% year on year. LMIR also managed to have rate increase in rental renewals to the tune of 16%! Indonesia is doing well, as I expected.

Unfortunately, the management lost $2.9m in foreign exchange forward contracts. Without these contracts, the distributable income would increase by 24%! A DPU of 1.35c for an annualised DPU of 5.4c? Now, that would be in line with its actual performance on the ground!

The management is singing the old tune that these contracts are a prudent measure to protect its income denominated in the Indonesian Rupiah. The very strong Rupiah has caused it to lose money quarter after quarter on these contracts. Who is making money, I wonder?

What do they expect from an economy that actually weathered the last financial crisis unscathed? Indonesia was one of only three Asian economies that did not go into a recession, the other two being China and India! These contracts should have been reduced significantly in the last three quarters! I have wondered on various occasions why the CFOs of LMIR could never last very long. Did they go against the idea of having foreign exchange forward contracts? I keep wondering.

Having said this, the REIT remains a relatively safe investment that should generate consistent income for unitholders although its inability to deliver significantly higher DPU is galling, given such impressive growth in revenue.

Lippo-Mapletree Indonesia Retail Trust achieves higher 3Q distributable income of $11.7m. In 3Q 2010, there was a realised loss on foreign exchange forward contracts of $2.9 million as the cross currency swap remained “out of the money”, compared to 3Q 2009 when a realised loss of $0.4 million was recorded as the IDR was weaker at that time.
Wednesday, 03 November 2010

© 2010 - The Edge Singapore

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LMIR: DPU reduced 20%.

Saizen REIT: Huge sell down in consolidation phase.

Just as I said on 2 Nov, "I noticed that there seems to be more buying interest in Saizen REIT today too. Of 3,260 lots that changed hands today, 2,968 lots were bought up at 16c. This could just be an anomaly or this could be the beginning of something bigger. Who can say for sure? A crack in the wall of worries? Perhaps.", the counter experienced heavy volume sell down on 3 Nov. The wall of worries was very much intact.

The golden cross between the rising 20dMA and the 50dMA failed to materialise as 20,291 lots were sold down at 15.5c out of 24,231 lots traded. MFI sank deeper into oversold territory, suggesting very weak demand.  This is confirmed by the OBV which showed extreme distribution activity that day. The consolation seemed to be that the selling at 15.5c was very well absorbed, considering that volume was at least 6 times more than the previous session which in itself was a rather high volume day for such a thinly traded counter.

On 4 Nov, I was kind of disappointed that the volume dried up.  I was hoping for more panic selling which might allow me to buy some at 15c.  Wishful thinking, it seems.

Related post:
Saizen REIT: More buying interest.