Bunnings trust H1 income grows to $39m

Bunnings Warehouse Property Trust has booked an 11 per cent increase in first-half income on the back of acquisitions and improvements to investment properties.

The trust, which owns and leases Bunnings warehouses, reported a first-half income of $39 million, up from $35.1 million reached in the previous corresponding period.

Finance costs were 12.4 per cent lower to $9.3 million due to the average level of debt being 35.8 per cent lower than the corresponding period.

Distributable profit grew 23.4 per cent to $25.3 million, which excludes the unrealised net gain of $15.9 million on the revaluations of the fair value of the portfolio.

The portfolio value climbed $16.7 million to $972.2 million during the reporting period.

The directors have declared an interim dividend of 6.1 cents for each share, lower than the previous corresponding period's 6.7c due to an increase in the number of shares following a $150 million capital raising in May last year.