KEPPEL Infrastructure Trust (KIT) reversed into the red with a loss of S$23.9 million in the first half of 2024, from a profit of S$39.4 million in H1 2023.
In a bourse filing on Friday (Jul 26) the business trust’s manager reported that revenue for the same time period fell 5.8 per cent to S$1 billion from S$1.1 billion a year prior. The fall was mainly driven by lower revenue from Ixom, the Australian business supplying chemicals, as well as distribution income from Aramco Gas Pipelines Company.
This was partially offset by the contribution of revenue from Ventura, the largest bus operator in Australia, acquired on Jun 3. Ixom’s fall in revenue was mainly due to lower commodity pricing and weaker currency exchange rates.
Distributable income also fell in tandem, down 31.5 per cent to S$91 million in H1 2024 from S$132.9 million in H1 2023. The lower distributable income was due to timing differences and one-offs.
The trust declared a distribution per unit of S$0.0195 for H1 2024, an increase of 1 per cent over S$0.0193 in H1 2023. This was based on an adjusted distributable income of S$117.8 million which would factor in the differences to better reflect underlying operational performance.
KIT’s assets under management grew about 8 per cent to S$8.8 billion as at Jun 30, from S$8.1 billion as at Jan 2. The trust’s solar portfolio in Germany has completed the fourth phase on Jul 25, after which KIT has completed the acquisition of over 57,000 installed solar panels to date.
City Energy, a KIT business unit, expects increasing town gas volume momentum to continue through the year, driven by commercial and industrial customers. Its customer base now exceeds 900,000. City Energy’s electric vehicle charging business has secured exclusive rights to extend charging services to over 23,000 car park lots as of Jun 30.
The trust has completed the capital restructuring of Keppel Merlimau Cogen (KMC), with a sustainability linked loan used to refinance an existing S$700 million loan due on Jun 30, 2027. The interest of the new loan is designed to incentivise KMC to produce energy efficiently, with step-ups for not hitting sustainability and carbon efficiency targets.
Units of KIT closed up 1.1 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.475 on Friday before the release of its results.
