Press & Analyst Briefing of PPB Group Berhad: (From left) MD of Chemquest Group Leong Yew Meng; PPB Group's head of corporate affairs & chief executive of GSC Koh Mei Lee; director of PPB Group and MD of FFM Group Datuk Ong Hung Hock; MD of PPB Group Lim Soon Huat; Head of corporate strategy & planning of PPB Group Yap Choi Foong; Company Secretary of PPB Mah Teck Keong; COO (property division) of PPB Group Chew Hwei Yeow

KUALA LUMPUR: Plantation firm PPB Group Bhd is planning to launch a low density mixed development at the site of the Ming Tien food court in Taman Megah, Petaling Jaya with a gross development value (GDV) of RM300mil.

The mixed development consisting of 228 condominium units with a retail portion will be launched by the end of the year.
“It is a very low density development. We are still working out the selling price of this development. We have to consider the high cost of developing this area as there are a lot of infrastructure requirements,” PPB’s property division chief operating officer Chew Hwei Yeow told a press conference.

“We would like to price it attractively. Once we announce it, we anticipate that demand will be good. The development will also have a retail centre with a GDV of RM200mil which we will keep as an investment,” Chew added.
He said the company would be developing a neighbourhood retail centre instead of a mall, addressing concerns over the oversupply of shopping malls in the area.

“It is quite similar to the Cheras Leisure Mall and we have a good occupancy and customer base. Basically we will cater to the residents in the surrounding areas. It will only be completed in four years and by that time the economic situation may already be different,” he said.
PPB Group managing director Lim Soon Huat said the project should provide the company with additional revenue by the middle of next year.
“We have received a lot of queries from residents from SS2, Sea Park, Taman Megah, Taman Mayang pertaining to this project. We have more than 300 registrants that have shown very strong interest,” Lim said.

“We are in discussions to relocate the traders in Ming Tien to a site owned by us near Teman Segar in Cheras.
“We have also met with the representatives of the residents at least four times before submitting the development model. We had the design and we asked them for their comments,” Chew said.

PPB posted a net profit of RM89.29mil for the second quarter ended June 30 compared with a net loss of RM78.72mil in the same quarter of the previous year on the back of a flat revenue of RM1.06bil.
PPB’s shares ended trading yesterday four sen lower at RM16.66.