Tambun Indah Land Bhd, a leading property developer in Penang, is planning to acquire 3.2 hectares of land next year.

Managing Director Ir Teh Kiak Seng said the group had identified 1.6 hectares on the mainland and another 1.6 hectares on Penang island with a gross development value (GDV) of approximately RM36 million and RM170 million, respectively.

According to an independent market researcher, the residential property market in Penang was valued at RM3.7 billion last year, and the mainland accounted for approximately 30 per cent of Penang's residential property market.

"Mainland Penang (Seberang Perai) is one of the fastest growing district in Penang due largely to a growing working class population as a result of rapid industrialisation," he said during the launch of the group's initial public offering (IPO) here today.

Tambun Indah is scheduled for a main-market listing on January 18.

"We are still eyeing for landbank in the Klang Valley like in Shah Alam and Kajang but are cautious about the cost, therefore, we have not finalised anything yet.

"As we all know, Klang Valley is a good market to do housing, but we want to build our name by building quality homes at an affordable price.

"We, however have no plans to expand overseas at the moment," Teh added.

Last year, the group garnered a 10 per cent share of the Seberang Perai residential property market.

"We expect after the IPO, our market share will increase above 10 per cent," he added.

To date, Tambun Indah has sold more than 2,800 residential units mostly in mainland Penang with a GDV of more than RM800 million.
Teh said the group achieved commendable financial performance over the years and had maintained a low-borrowing financial model so as not to burden the balance sheet.

As at December 31, 2009, the group was in net cash position.
"Tambun Indah has adopted a progressive dividend policy of paying between 40 and 60 per cent of group net profits to shareholders.

"At an IPO price of 70 sen per share, the annualised net dividend yield is estimated to be approximately seven per cent in financial year 2010.

"We believe this policy will go a long way in not only attracting investors but also ensuring value-creation for the long-term," he added.

Tambun Indah's IPO consist of a public issue of 32 million new ordinary shares and an offer-for-sale of 22.1 million vendor shares at an IPO price of 70 sen per share.

Of the 32 million new ordinary shares under the public issue, 11.05 million shares will be allocated for the Malaysian public.
Meanwhile, it has also allocated 9.9 million shares for private placement and 11.05 million shares for eligible directors, employees and business associates of the group.

The 22.1 million offer-for-sale shares will be allocated for placement to identified investors.

Additionally, the group's IPO will raise RM22.4 million in proceeds for the group.

Of this, RM12.70 million will be allocated for working capital, RM7.10 million for repayment of borrowings and the remaining RM2.60 million to defray listing expenses.

MIMB Investment Bank Bhd is the adviser, sponsor, underwriter and placement agent for the group's IPO exercise. — BERNAMA


SOURCE: Business Times

SINGAPORE: CapitaMalls Asia Limited is set to add another mall to its portfolio with the proposed acquisition of Queensbay Mall in Penang for RM651.8 million.

According to Lim Beng Chee, CEO of CapitaMalls Asia, Queensbay Mall will form the seed asset for the trust's planned RM1 billion Malaysia retail property fund, to potentially provide a pipeline of shopping malls for CapitaMalls Malaysia Trust to acquire.

The trust will acquire about 90.7% of the mall's retail strata area of about 916,181 sq ft and all its car park, it said in a press release on Wednesday, Dec 22.

Taking into account the net lettable area (NLA) of about 892,361 sq ft, the purchase price is equivalent to about RM730 psf of NLA. The total cost, including acquisition-related cost, is RM658.3 million.

"Gurney Plaza – which we already own through CapitaMalls Malaysia Trust – and Queensbay Mall are the two best malls in Penang. The acquisition of Queensbay Mall, the largest shopping mall in Penang, will substantially strengthen CapitaMalls Asia's market leadership in the state.

"This acquisition signals our ongoing commitment to invest in Malaysia's retail sector for the long-term, following our listing of CapitaMalls Malaysia Trust in July this year," said Lim.

Queensbay Mall will be CapitaMalls Asia's second mall in Penang, and its fourth in Malaysia. The other three malls – Gurney Plaza in Penang, an interest in Sungei Wang Plaza in Kuala Lumpur, and The Mines in Selangor – are owned through CapitaMalls Asia's stake in CapitaMalls Malaysia Trust.

Lim, who puts Queensbay Mall's property yield at about 5%, said CapitaMalls Asia will leverage on its scale and expertise to upgrade the mall further through remixing the tenancy as well as improving the asset plan to realise the potential of the mall.

The acquisition will be carried out through CapitaMalls' subsidiaries and an asset-backed securitisation structure.

Queensbay Mall, which is located at Bayan Lepas, is a family lifestyle mall in the geart of a 73-acre prime waterfront integrated development, comprising a hotel, residential homes and planned office towers.

Due to its central location, excellent transport links and proximity to the Penang Bridge and Bayan Lepas industrial hub in Penang's Free Trade Zone, the mall serves about 1.6 million people on Penang island and the peninsula mainland.

The mall's accessibility will be further enhanced in the future with the planned development of the proposed second link bridge from the south of Penang island to Seberang Prai on the mainland.

SOURCE: The Edge Property

The property market in Malaysia is expected to remain buoyant next year, seeing a moderate uptrend in prices, in line with economic growth and growing interest among foreigners.

Speakers at a press conference on the Fourth Malaysian Property Summit 2011 here today said, no property bubble is expected in the foreseeable future, due to pent up demand for certain upmarket condo launches.

The Malaysian Property Summit is scheduled to be held on Jan 18, 2011 at the Sime Darby Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur.

More than 200 participants, including developers, property owners, investors, bankers, financial analysts, economists, and property consultants are expected to attend.

Property consultant and valuer, James Wong said, the sharp increase in prices, is only to be seen in certain landed properties in choice locations with a huge demand for it in Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

James Wong is also the managing director of VPC Alliance (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and regional chairman of VPC Asia Pacific Limited, a regional grouping of property consultants operating in eight countries.

"With escalating prices of property, one of the challenges for the government is to boost income, and move the country towards a high income economy," he said.

"This can be achieved by providing clear guidelines under the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), especially on Private Finance Initiatives (PFI), as a majority of the funding under it comes from private initiatives," he told a press conference.

The president of the Association of Valuers, Property Managers, Estate Agents and Property Consultants in the Private Sector, Malaysia (PEPS), Choy Yue Kwong said in 2011, property prices would improve but the office market will remain soft.

"The property market currently is still very buoyant. Market prices are at record new highs. Interest rate is still relatively low," Choy said during the same press conference.

Choy emphasised that the high Asian savings will also cushion against a property bubble.

"It is challenging to own a house with a salary of just only RM4,000 a month. In 1975, a house in the Klang Valley was around RM30,000 and graduates earned about RM700 a month.

"Today, a graduate earns about RM2,000 but a house in the Klang Valley could easily cost RM400,000," he elaborated. Thus, Choy said, owning a house is only possible if the government made an effort to uplift income.

Eric Ooi, managing director of Knight Frank Malaysia, a global residential and commercial property consultancy, said this problem is prevalent in Asian countries.

"Funds and investment money is moving into Asia as the United States and the European economies are still struggling to come out of the doldrums.

"There is a lot of interest from buyers from China who are agressively buying into properties in Australia and Singapore. If these buyers start buying into Malaysian properties, then prices will further escalate," he said.

According to Ooi, there is a lot of interest at present from Singaporean and Hong Kong buyers, for Malaysian properties.
He highlighted that foreigners are looking at the yield in making decisions on property purchases.

"Currently, the Kuala Lumpur property market has a positive yield. Investors also like stability in the country and election results will have an impact on their investment mood," he explained.

He also said another factor to affect the property market is any increase in interest rates as it will impact the repayment of loans.

"However, there are expectations that the interest rate will not increase susbstantially," Choy added. — Bernama


SOURCE: Business Times

Property in Penang will continue to remain a favourite choice among investors as it is expected to show returns that are above the national average.

Henry Butcher Malaysia (Penang) Sdn Bhd director Dr Jason Teoh said property investment was generally perceived to have a longer term horizon as it was not so volatile compared to stocks.

He said investing in property had proven to be a good hedge against inflation because the returns ge-nerated were higher than the Con-sumer Price Index.

“In fact, seasoned real estate in-vestors from Hong Kong and Singa-pore have predicted that real value will increase over the next few years.

“Among the reasons is Malaysia’s recent positioning in the top 10 list of the world’s most competitive countries,” he said in a statement in conjunction with the official launch of the lifestyle suites, 118@Island Plaza, at level seven of Island Plaza, Penang, this weekend.

The public is invited to the sales gallery to view the show unit between 10am and 6pm on Satur-day and Sunday.

Response to the initial sales preview had been overwhelming with 50% of the 106 suites sold prior to the official launch.

Henry Butcher Malaysia (Penang) is the sole and exclusive marketing consultant for the contemporary suites owned by Omega Moments Sdn Bhd.

Teoh said foreign real estate investors had complimented Pe-nang’s progress in offering some of the most attractive product designs, but at prices which were only a fraction of those in their home countries.

“Penang’s real estate market can now be benchmarked against some of the best schemes in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore,” he said.

He added that Penang, being voted among the eighth most liveable cities in Asia, on par with KL and Bangkok by ECA International, had created further excitement, especially among foreigners seeking a second home.

118@Island Plaza is the first alteration and amendment development of its kind, which when completed, will offer much demanded housing and office units for professionals and expatriates.

Each unit, ranging from 500 sq ft to 1,160 sq ft, is thoughtfully conceptualised and designed as part of Island Plaza’s remodelling programme to bring in greater vi- brancy.

For enquiries, contact Henry Butcher Malaysia (Penang) Sdn Bhd at 04-2298999.

SOURCE: The Star

A rise in consumer price index (CPI) may impel Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to resume increasing interest rates, by 25 basis points each in the second and third quarter of 2011, respectively.

The central bank, however, is expected to keep its monetary policy on hold in the first quarter of 2011 until there was more clarity on the global picture and given its "moderate inflation" projection through 2011.

"We are more concerned about CPI inflation, expecting it to rise to 3.3 per cent in 2011. This should impel BNM to resume raising rates, with 25 basis point hikes each in quarter two and three of 2011," Nomura Securities International Inc said in its 2011 Global Economic Outlook released here today.

Monetary conditions tightened in 2010 via real effective exchange rate appreciation and three 25 basis points rate hikes bringing the overnight policy rate to 2.75 per cent.

Monetary conditions should also tighten through further ringgit appreciation, given the large current account surplus and potential for larger capital inflows, said Nomura. "We do not expect Malaysia to impose controls on inflows in the near future," it added.

BNM recently further liberalised the capital account and set a 70 per cent loan-to-valuation ratio cap on third mortgages in a bid to curb property market speculation.

More macro-prudential measures are likely, it said. — Bernama


SOURCE: Business Times