Low Chuan Holdings is offering 45 sen a share for all of AP Land's assets and liabilities in what is likely to be a prelude to the company being taken private

The Low family has offered RM305.2 million to take over the business of Asia Pacific Land Bhd (AP Land), a 50-year old property developer, in what is likely to be a prelude to the company being taken private.

AP Land is famous for building some of Kuala Lumpur's main landmarks like the Empire Tower and City Square shopping centre, which sits at the junction of Jalan Tun Razak and Jalan Ampang.

The group's major shareholder is Low Chuan Holdings Sdn Bhd (LCH) with a 37 per cent stake. LCH is owned by Low Gee Tat@Gene Low, Low Gee Teong, Low Gee Soon, Sem Siong Industries Sdn Bhd, Selangor Holdings Sdn Bhd and Low Chuan Securities Sdn Bhd.

LCH is offering 45 sen a share for all of AP Land's assets and liabilities. The stock closed at 41 sen on Monday as trading was suspended yesterday.

Analysts told Business Times that this is an opportunity for LCH to take AP Land private as its market value is way below its net tangible asset of RM700 million.

"Looking at that situation and with not much assets in AP Land's coffers, it is better to privatise the company. AP Land has not garnered much interest from investors," said one analyst.

AP Land, formerly known as Mount Pleasure Holdings Bhd, was founded in 1961 and is involved in property development and investment.

It operates a golf course and college and has an oil palm plantation in East Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Its current projects are myHabitat residences in Kuala Lumpur, Bandar Tasik Puteri township in Rawang, Selangor, and Penang Island Bay Resort.

AP Land has launched a commercial development in Changshu City in China and a residential project in Hokkaido, Japan.

By Business Times

Proud moment: One World Hotel director of rooms Kenneth Perreau receiving the award from editor of Expatriate Lifestyle Magazine Matt Bellotti.

One World Hotel, Petaling Jaya, has managed to bag three awards at the recent Expatriate Lifestyle magazine’s Best of Malaysia Travel Awards 2010.

The awards’ results were announced in the October 2010 issue. The hotel’s management said it was honoured and proud to have won these highly prestigious awards which were voted by hundreds of thousands expatriates living in Malaysia.

One World Hotel received an Excellence Award in Best City Hotel category, Zuan Yuan Chinese Restaurant was awarded the Excellence Award for the Best Hotel Restaurant category while Thann Sanctuary Spa was recognised as the Best City Spa.

For the past four years, Expatriate Lifestyle magazine had their readers cast votes for their favourites in the Best of Malaysia Awards — an annual travel and hospitality awards. It is a form of recognition and gratitude to efforts in offering the best in meeting with international standards and expectations.

This year’s voting has been exceptional with increased number of votes compared to 2009.

One World Hotel is the only independent hotel in Petaling Jaya to have won the Best City Hotel Award for the second consecutive year. These awards have certainly endorsed the hotel’s position as the leading five-star hotel in Selangor and a tribute to One World Hotel for

providing the highest standards of services and facilities to guests.

Its general manager Ho Hoy Sum said the hotel staff’s steadfast commitment to excellence and consistency in standards earned them these prestigious awards and winning the Best City Hotel award for consecutive years was indeed an inspiration to motivate them further in their commitment to excellence and to ensure that guests receive only the very best service from the hotel.

By The Star

UEM Land Holdings Bhd, a Malaysian property developer, rose to a record in Kuala Lumpur trading as it’s close to completing a takeover of Sunrise Bhd.

The stock climbed 1.7 per cent to RM2.94 at 9:16 a.m. local time.

The takeover offer closed on Jan. 7 and it will now invoke a compulsory purchase order for all remaining shares of Sunrise, it said in a statement.

By Bloomberg

SHANGHAI/BEIJING: China is set to further clamp down on the country's buoyant housing market by imposing a long-debated property tax for the first time in the southwestern city of Chongqing, domestic media reported on Monday, Jan 10.

Chongqing has "in principle" won approval from the Ministry of Finance and may introduce the property tax as early as this quarter, the China Securities Journal cited the city's government as saying.

Analysts expect the tax to be about 1 percent, the Journal said.

China has debated for many years about having a property tax but held back out of fears it may seriously harm the market.

Domestic media reports in recent months suggest, however, that China's government is finally warming to the idea and may impose a property tax on a trial basis in several cities including Chongqing, Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen.

The China Business News said on Monday that Chongqing is likely to only tax high-end properties, in contrast to Shanghai, which reportedly will only tax selected second homes.

Chiþna has taken a slew of measures to cool its red-hot property market since late 2009 as part of efforts to fight speculative "hot money" flowing into the country.

Despite the measures, house prices in China's major cities soared by more than a fifth last year.

Analysts welcomed the tax as a way to restrain the market.

By Reuters