By Sharen Kaur
Published in NST on September 30 2010
EASTERN & Oriental Bhd (E&O) wants to expand regionally to grow its property development and food and beverage (F&B) units, its chief said.
The developer's businesses are currently in Kuala Lumpur and Penang, where it is involved in property development and investment, and operating hotels and restaurants.
Under the F&B division, E&O operates the Delicious Chain of restaurants in Malaysia and it wants to expand this to Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, said its executive director, Eric Chan.
"F&B contributed some RM3 million to E&O's net profit last year and we aim to increase this going forward," Chan said yesterday, after the company's shareholders meeting in Kuala Lumpur.
E&O operates six Delicious outlets and one Chinese restaurant.
The company has RM500 million in its coffers to spearhead the F&B expansion. However, the bulk of the cash will be used to generate fresh cash flow by launching new projects and buying more land, Chan said.
On the property development front, Chan said E&O aims to launch flagship projects in Singapore and Jakarta, Indonesia, but there are no concrete plans yet.
"Our priority is to launch projects locally. We have more than RM4 billion worth of high-end housing projects to launch in Penang and Kuala Lumpur. We will launch as long as the market can take it.
"If there are no negative policies being implemented, then we expect the markets in Penang and Kuala Lumpur to be positive," he said.
Among the projects that E&O plans to launch are seafront terraces, villas and semi-detached homes in Penang, and condominiums at Jalan Yap Kwan Seng and Jalan Kia Peng as well as in Bukit Tunku in Kuala Lumpur.
Chan said E&O aims to achieve record sales of RM1 billion. No time frame was, however, given.
For its financial year ended March 31 2010, E&O posted RM70.5 million in net profit on revenue of RM352.4 million.
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