Kingston Properties buys Cayman

Kingston Properties (KPREIT) completed the acquisition of a fully tenanted, mixed use building located in the West Bay Beach South area in the capital of the Cayman Islands.
“The building comprises offices, retail outlets and residences along the famous Seven Mile Beach corridor, an area that has seen significant infrastructure improvements, as well as new luxury resort and condo developments over the last three years,” KPREIT disclosed.
“This acquisition represents KPREIT’s first foray into the Cayman Islands, which is a country with a per capita GDP of USD58,856 and one of the leading financial centres of the world, offering a tax free environment with no property, income, corporation or capital gains taxes. GDP growth for the first half of 2016 is put at 3% on an annualized basis with unemployment of 3.9%.
KPREIT in their release to the Jamaica Stock Exchange indicated that “The fundamentals in Cayman are expected to continue to improve based on the growth in the Special Economic Zone near the South Sound, planned expansion of the International Airport, construction of a new cruise ship pier in Georgetown, expansion of the highway in the general West Bay Road area, along with continued resort and condo developments along the Seven Mile Beach corridor”.
“This acquisition is part of our strategy to continue to broaden our geographic reach as well as diversify the mix of property types in our portfolio. In addition, this continues KPREIT’s philosophy of multi-tenant rental properties as a means to mitigate vacancy risk, as well as hard currency rentals as a hedge against devaluation,” the KPREIT release stated.
For the nine months ended September 2016, KPREIT posted profit after-tax and comprehensive income of $131 million and $180 million, respectively. In the previous year, losses of $51 million and a loss in comprehensive income of $28 million, were incurred respectively, for the same period. The
For the third quarter 2016, group profit amounted to $14.0 million compared with a loss of $4.5 million for the similar period in 2015. Total comprehensive income for the quarter increased from $5.8 million in 2015 to $25.4 million in 2016. Higher rentals, net finance income and foreign currency translation gains in 2016 were primary drivers of the improved performance.
The group’s Investment Properties valued increased 56 percent to $1.93 billion at September last year, but mostly from acquisitions.
Kingston Properties which trades on the Jamaica Stock Exchange closed on Tuesday at $9 with 11,779 shares trading.