Low with a model of Damansara Foresta.

Last week, Land & General Bhd (L&G) soft-launched its condominium project, Damansara Foresta, in Bandar Sri Damansara, Petaling Jaya. That launch was significant in many ways.

L&G is an old brand that became a casualty of the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis. Bandar Sri Damansara is its old turf, having made a name for itself when it built the township with some 14,000 households decades ago.

The company fell victim to the crisis because it had a cashflow problem and became insolvent. It also had massive debts. It was also involved in a variety of businesses and owned properties in different parts of the world that it was not able to fully concentrate on.

Like other companies that fell during that period, L&G’s fall from grace revealed its many weaknesses, which had earlier went unnoticed.

The whole unfortunate affair culminated with the resignation of its captain, Tan Sri Wan Azmi Wan Hamzah, in 2002 from the debt-laden property group.

In 2007, Hong Kong-based property tycoon Tan Sri David Chiu became a substantial shareholder of L&G with an 8.35% stake through Mayland Parkview Sdn Bhd. That stake has grown to 16.94% today. His entry sparked speculation of a possible asset injection or takeover exercise. It pushed the stock up from 20 sen to over 80 sen in six months.

But there was no asset injection. Instead, the new management under managing director Low Gay Teck spent the last several years quietly cleaning house and strengthening the foundations of the company.

When L&G, under Low, launched commercial project 8trium in Bandar Sri Damansara, buyers were sceptical about the company. Does it has the financial muscle to pull it off? Today, that project is more than 95% sold and in about three months, it will be completed.

When it launched its Damansara Foresta condominium project (with gross development value of RM700mil), this skepticism was not evident anymore.

Low is a property man. He was with Mayland with Chiu for many years and has helped build up Mayland’s name in the Plaza Damas area in Sri Hartamas. But while Mayland concentrates on studio units of about 500 sq ft, L&G prefers the 1,400 to 1,600 sq ft range as can be seen in the recent launch.

While property development will remain its core business, contributing about 70% to the group’s revenue, L&G also inherited the education business in the form of private school Sri Bistari.

The last several years has seen student enrolment double to about 1,100. Low has never been in the education business but he seems willing to take what the company has inherited and to make the most of it. Today, revenue from its education business amounted to about RM5.7mil (19% of total revenue of RM28.7mil) for the six-month period ended Sept 30, 2011, according to filings with Bursa Malaysia.

Total contribution from the property division amounted to RM17mil (66% of total revenue) and looking ahead, property will be the company’s main business for the next decade or so.

L&G also has a bit of oil palm plantation (about 1,010ha) which it inherited from the previous management in the Lembah Beringin area, its previous township development during its heyday. There are plans to fully make use of that piece of land with new plantings.

The company has other sources of revenue of about RM7mil but at press time, it is uncertain whether this RM7mil is a contribution from the plantation business.

The recent launch of Damansara Foresta is interesting because that project is only one part of that 40 over acres in Sri Damansara. The entire gross development value of the 40-odd acres will be about RM2bil. As mentioned earlier, L&G made its name in Bandar Sri Damansara and it looks like it will continue to rebuild its name and branding in that location.

With that land size, the project will take several years to complete and the profit margins should be good as it owns the land, having bought it decades ago. Its recent launch was priced between RM500 and RM600 per sq ft.

L&G also has two other pieces of land, including about 25 acres in the Bandar Sri Damansara clubhouse area, but it will have to solve the membership issue of that clubhouse first.

Last year, it bought about 200 acres in Seremban and has to date submitted its development plans to the local authorities there. The Seremban land will be used for a mixed residential project with terraced, semi-detached and cluster homes priced at about RM300,000 for the terraced houses.

Although it plans to have predominantly landed housing for the Seremban land, L&G will very probably focus on condominium projects for its overall property business in order to slowly get back on its feet. It also has a joint-venture development with the Mayland group at Jalan Ampang known as Elements@Ampang with a GDV of RM700mil.

The company’s total borrowings amounted to RM68.58mil, while its cash and cash equivalents totalled about RM140mil as at Sept 30, 2011. It took a bridging loan of about RM90mil for Damansara Foresta, which is about 50% sold to date.

As mentioned earlier, when the new management came in in 2007, speculation drove L&G’s share price up to about 80 sen a share. Today, it is between 30 and 40 sen. Its shareholding seems rather fragmented, with Wan Azmi having a 2.13% stake.

Now that Low and his team have cleaned up the company, things are moving again.

By The Star

KULAIJAYA: IOI Corp Bhd does not see any effect from the additional 10% stamp duty ruling imposed by the Singapore government on foreigners buying private property on its new project there.

IOI Properties Bhd senior general manager Simon Heng said the company was targeting Singaporean buyers instead of foreigners for its Clementi condominium project.

He said its strategic location within the mature housing estate of Clementi and close proximity with the National University Hospital and Clementi MRT station were the project's strong selling points.

“There are many Singaporeans living in the HDB flats who wanted to upgrade to living in private condominiums,” Heng told StarBiz after signing an agreement service with Telekom Malaysia Bhd to provide UniFi high-speed broadband network connectivity to house buyers of Parcels 3A and 4A of Bandar Putra here and Parcel 3A of Taman Kempas Utama in Johor Baru.

Singapore had in December introduced a new ruling where foreigners have to pay an additional 10% stamp duty when buying a private home in the republic, effectively raising the purchase price by 10%.

The move is seen to cool the private residential prices on the island state which are on the upward trend and there are complaints from Singaporeans that rich foreigners have push up demand and prices of private residential properties.

“We have yet to come out with the development details and land utilisation of 0.97ha site of the Clementi project,” said Heng adding transaction for high-end condominium in Clementi area could fetch S$1,000 per sq ft.

By The Star

The company will launch Platinum Park residences, residential component in Taman Tun Dr Ismail and one residential component in KL Metropolis.

KUALA LUMPUR: Naza TTDI Sdn Bhd, which is optimistic about the property market in Kuala Lumpur, will continue to launch new projects and residential components in its existing projects.

The property development arm of the Naza Group is also launching three high-end residential projects.

Deputy executive chairman and group managing director SM Faliq SM Nasimuddin said the company is still optimistic about the property market in Kuala Lumpur.

"So far, I think we are still going aggressive into 2012, we still continue launching our remaining phases in our current township projects and also our ongoing projects," he told a news conference after the awards ceremony for "Bertam Master Plan & Creative Ideas Competition" last night.

SM Faliq said the company will launch Platinum Park residences, residential component in Taman Tun Dr Ismail and one residential component in KL Metropolis.

The combined gross development value for these projects is about RM1.5 billion.

Earlier, Naza TTDI and Persatuan Arkitek Malaysia (PAM) awarded six participants of the jointly-organised competition.

The competition required participants to submit creative ideas and designs for the masterplan of Naza TTDI's upcoming 333.6ha township in Bertam, Penang.

SM Faliq said the Bertam project is the company's first township development outside the Klang Valley.

"The success of our Bertam township development will serve as a platform for us to foray into development in other parts of the country," he said.

SM Faliq said the competition, which is its third such collaboration with PAM, aims to provide a platform for the architectural fraternity to showcase their expertise.

He added that Naza TTDI is committed to supporting and giving due recognition to local architect firms for their creative and innovative designs.

Naza TTDI had previously collaborated with PAM for respective masterplan competitions for the former's land in Puchong and Shah Alam in 2010.

Among the judging criteria for the competition include innovativeness, environmental-friendly features, the ability to achieve the Green Building Index rating, economical and resource efficiency, world-class qualities and consideration of traffic circulation while conforming to local planning standards and guidelines.

Also present at the awards ceremony were PAM president Ar Saifuddin Ahmad and chief executive officer Ar Paul Lai Chu.

By Business Times

KUALA LUMPUR: Naza TTDI Sdn Bhd will commence works on its first out-of-Klang Valley project in Bertam, Penang next year.

While the mixed development is still in its design stage, it will be Naza TTDI's long-term project geared towards the middle to high-end market.

Faliq: ‘This year is our trophy year.’

Deputy executive chairman and group managing director SM Faliq SM Nasimuddin said the gross development value had not been determined but gave a rough estimate of houses priced from RM600,000.

The 834-acre Bertam township will be mainly residential with commercial and education developments.

“Penang island is not getting any cheaper so people who want to stay there would have to look for alternatives,” Faliq said after the Bertam Master Plan & Creative Ideas Competition awards ceremony.

He said that Naza TTDI had plans to go south to the Iskandar Malaysia region as well as beyond the country.

While the property arm of Naza has been developing projects single-handedly, it is open collaborations and partnerships.

“There are local and foreign parties that have approached us but nothing is solid yet, we are still in talks,” Faliq said.

“This year is our trophy year. We are still aggressive and optimistic about the property market,” he added, “We are looking to launch three high-end projects this year.”

Faliq was referring to the Platinum Park, KL Metropolis and Taman Tun Dr Ismail residential projects in Kuala Lumpur. The combined GDV for these projects is RM1.5bil.

Naza TTDI has a total of 1,200 acres of landbank now, 800 acres of which are under planning.

The Bertam Master Plan competition was jointly-organised by Persatuan Arkitek Malaysia and Naza TTDI, where participants submitted ideas and designs for the master plan of the township.

Winners of the competition were architects Lim Siew Bok, David Teh Teik Lim and Almaz Salma Abdul Rahim who received RM100,000, RM75,000 and RM50,000 respectively.

By The Star