Newly listed Filinvest REIT Corp. (FILRT) declared a cash dividend Tuesday, barely a month since its successful debut on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).

In its meeting on August 31, 2021, the Board of Directors of FILRT approved the declaration of its first quarterly cash dividend to all stockholders in the amount of Php0.112 per outstanding common share. The cash dividends will be payable on September 30, 2021 to stockholders on record as of September 15, 2021. The amount is equivalent to a quarterly yield of 1.6% or an annualized yield of 6.4%. 

During its initial public offering (IPO) listing last August 12, FILRT projected a dividend yield of 6.3% for 2021 and 6.6% for 2022 based on a price of ₱7.00 per share.

“FILRT’s declaration of cash dividends is in fulfillment of our commitment to our shareholders who gave us their vote of confidence during our IPO listing and our mandate under the REIT Act. We continue to stay on track to deliver 6.3% dividend yield for 2021 to FILRT shareholders.” said Filinvest Land, Inc. (FLI) president and CEO and FILRT chairperson Josephine Gotianun-Yap.

Last August 12, the company’s IPO managed to buck the stock market’s downtrend and closed above its IPO price of P7.00 per share even as the PSE index fell by 1.67% and the property index declined by 3.14% on the same day.

FILRT’s portfolio consists of 17 Grade A office buildings totaling over 300,000 square meters of gross leasable area (GLA). Of these, 16 of the 17 buildings are in Northgate Cyberzone in Filinvest City in Alabang, a PEZA Special Economic Zone and IT park while another building is located in the gateway of Cebu IT park in Lahug, Cebu City. The assets were valued by an independent appraisal company at ₱48.5 billion.

FILRT differentiated itself as a “green” or sustainability-themed REIT as its portfolio includes two LEED Gold-certified office buildings and 16 buildings are in Northgate Cyberzone in Filinvest City in Alabang, the first central business district in the country and the largest in Southeast Asia to receive Gold Certification from LEED® v4 for Neighborhood Development Plan. The buildings are cooled by the country’s largest district cooling system that reduces carbon emissions and energy consumption, the result of Filinvest’s partnership with Engie, a world leader in developing sustainable technology solutions. These sustainability features resonated well with investors, particularly those adhering to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles of investing, said Maricel Brion-Lirio, president of FILRT.