It’s a deal: Anwar (second from left) exchanging the MoU with Law during the signing ceremony in Kuala Lumpur.

KUALA LUMPUR: Property developer UEM Sunrise Bhd  intends to beef up its presence as a national developer by increase its land-bank within the Klang Valley.

The company, which has disposed of 163.9 acres in Johor to Country View Bhd  for RM310mil, intends to utilise part of the proceeds to buy new land, its managing director and chief executive officer Anwar Syahrin Abdul Ajib said.

“It (the RM310mil) is for a combination of things. It will help with our gearing levels and with our infrastructure investments in Puteri Harbour, Johor. We’re putting in quite a sizeable amount of money there,” he told reporters following a signing ceremony between UEM Sunrise and Country View yesterday.

“It will also give us the flexibility to do some landbanking in the Klang Valley. It’s a good opportunity for us to look for land outside of Johor.”

“One of the areas that we are looking at greatly is to increase our gross development value within Klang Valley.

“We have 10,000 acres in Johor, around 2,400 acres in Perak and a few hundred within the Klang Valley.”

As at June 30, 2017, UEM Sunrise’s gearing ratio stood at 0.56-times.

UEM Sunrise, via its wholly-owned subsidiary Bandar Nusajaya Development Sdn Bhd, signed a sales and purchase agreement with Country View Resources Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of developer Country View Bhd, for land in Iskandar Puteri, Johor.

The land will be developed into a mixed commercial development.

Country View Bhd executive director Law Kit Tat said it was still to early to divulge details of the development that Country View will embark.

Last week, UEM Sunrise inked a deal with building materials company, the Luxx Newhouse Group, for the sale of 100,000 sq ft of land in Johor for RM13mil.

Under the agreement, the latter will also have an option to purchase another 100,000 sq ft of land.

The investment will involve furniture production, housing over 200 skilled employees. The Luxx Newhouse Group, which will be investing RM80mil over the next five years in UEM Sunrise’s Southern Industrial and Logistics Clusters (SILC) phase 3, has operations in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and China.

SILC phase 3, located in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, offers levelled industrial land with ready infrastructure, build-to-suit packages and limited ready-built facilities.

Development of the land is scheduled to be completed by the first quarter of next year.

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