Acrophyte Hospitality Trust has reported a distribution per stapled security of 0.432 US cents (0.56 cents) for the 1HFY2025, 42.2% lower y-o-y.

During the six months, gross revenue fell by 6.9% y-o-y to US$78.1 million mainly due to the disposal of three hotels in 2024, which are Hyatt Place Pittsburgh Airport in March, Hyatt House Plymouth Meeting in July and Hyatt House Shelton in October.

As at June 30, Acrophyte Hospitality Trust had 33 hotels compared to 35 hotels last year, with 781,015 rooms available for sale, 7.3% lower than the 842,954 rooms for sale as at June 30, 2024.

On a same-store basis, gross revenue fell by 1% y-o-y.

Portfolio revenue per available room (RevPAR) inched up by 0.7% y-o-y to US$94 due to the improved average occupancy of 68%, up from 67.3% last year.

Gross operating profit fell by 9.9% y-o-y to US$26.7 million while gross operating profit margin fell by 1.1 percentage points y-o-y 34.2%.

Net property income (NPI) plunged by 14.3% y-o-y to US$18 million while NPI margin fell by 2 percentage points y-o-y to 23%.

The lower gross operating profit and NPI were attributed to the lower revenue and higher operating expenses, particularly labour costs.

However, distributable income before retention fell by 35.8% y-o-y due to the continued high-interest-rate environment. As at June 30, net gearing stood at 40%, up from 39.1% as at Dec 31, 2024, but down from 41.5% as at June 30, 2024.

After the retention of US$278,000 for general corporate and working capital, distributable income also fell by 42.2% y-o-y to US$2.5 million.

Including the amount retained, the trust’s DPS would have been down by 35.8% y-o-y to 0.48 US cents.

“Our operational performance in 1HFY2025 was impacted by the absence of contributions from the hotels divested in 2024, which equated to a 7.3% reduction in rooms available for sale,” says Lee Jin Yong, CEO of the managers.

“Additionally, the softening of overall US lodging demand—driven by macroeconomic uncertainty and policy-related headwinds—weighed on performance as the portfolio’s RevPAR increased only slightly. From an expense standpoint, we continue to face challenges with rising operating costs, particularly labour,” he adds.

That said, he says the trust will continue to divest non-core and underperforming assets and “reallocating capital towards capital expenditures and paying down debt”.

Acrophyte Hospitality Trust will pay its DPS on Sept 26. The record date is on Aug 15.

As at 9.11am, units in Acrophyte Hospitality Trust are trading 1 US cent lower or 3.39% down at 28.5 US cents.