(Adds CEO comment and dividend)
Feb 21 (Reuters) - Australia's retail property developer Scentre Group SCG.AX on Wednesday posted an increase of more than 4 percent in its annual underlying profit citing growth in customer visitations and retailer demand.
Funds from operations (FFO), the primary earnings metric of the company, totaled A$1.29 billion ($1.02 billion) for 2017 compared to $1.24 billion the previous year.
Scentre also said it expects FFO growth of about 4 percent for 2018 and distribution per security growth of about 2 percent.
"Our strong net operating income growth was underpinned by growth in customer visitation with retailer demand maintaining occupancy greater than 99.5 percent," said CEO Peter Allen.
Scentre declared a final dividend of 10.87 cents per share, up from 10.65 cents per share the previous year. ($1 = 1.2686 Australian dollars)