UEM Land inks RM4b Nusajaya deal

By Sharen Kaur

sharen@nstp.com.my

Published in NST on December 4, 2012

 

It is understood that UEM Land signed agreements with the companies from Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and China for various projects over the past week.

  UEM Land Holdings Bhd, the property development arm of UEM Group Bhd, has inked deals worth about RM4 billion with six companies to develop Phase 2 of Bandar Nusajaya in Johor.

It is understood that UEM Land signed agreements with the companies from Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and China for various projects over the past week.

The companies are Iskandar Investments Bhd (IIB), Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM), China Mall Holdings Pte Ltd, Fastrack Pte Ltd of Singapore and South Korea's Centios and Cisco.

People familiar with the matter said there will be four rounds of exchanging of documents between UEM Land and the six companies at the World Islamic Economic Forum today.

UEM Land will exchange documents with China Mall in the first round, followed with IIB and TM. It will next exchange documents with Fastrack and finally with IIB, TM, Centios and Cisco, Business Times was told.

"These deals are important for UEM Land as Phase 1 of Nusajaya, which started six years ago, has achieved its tipping point," a source said.

UEM Land managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Wan Abdullah Wan Ibrahim had said previously that a slew of initiatives would be completed by the end of the year.

The company is the master developer of the 9,600ha Nusajaya, which is Malaysia's first economic growth corridor in Johor and one of the flagship zones in Iskandar Malaysia.

UEM Land owns 4,141ha there and is building homes, waterfront properties, offices, hotels, factories, hospitals, campuses and theme parks there, making it Malaysia's biggest real estate development.

Developments under Phase 1 included Kota Iskandar, which is to become Johor's new administrative centre, and the Legoland Malaysia and Puteri Harbour Family theme parks.

To spearhead developments at Nusajaya, UEM Land had in October signed an agreement with Singapore's Ascendas Land International Pte Ltd to jointly develop a US$1.23 billion (RM3.76 billion) technology park project.

The park will be developed in the new Nusajaya precinct called Gerbang Nusajaya, a RM18 billion greenfield development sprawled over 1,800ha.

UEM Land's net profit rose by 53.4 per cent to RM247.1 million for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2012 on revenues of RM1.24 billion.

The stock closed two sen higher yesterday at RM2.13 yesterday.