‘UEM Sunrise on track to meet RM1.2b sales target this year'

KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 29): UEM Sunrise Bhd is on track to meet its RM1.2 billion sales target for 2018, its managing director and chief executive officer Anwar Syahrin Abdul Ajib (pictured) said.

As at end-June, the group’s property sales had already exceeded half of the year’s target.

Anwar Syahrin said 22% of the group’s property sales were contributed from this year’s launches namely Serimbun and Kiara Kasih, 52% were from ongoing projects and the remaining 26% were from its completed properties such as Symphony Hills in Cyberjaya, Residensi 22 in Mont'Kiara and collectively East Ledang, Nusa Idaman, Teega, Nusa Bayu including Estuari Gardens in Iskandar Puteri, Johor.

To date, UEM Sunrise has launched properties with a total gross development value (GDV) of RM354.7 million.

“We are committed to launching RM1 billion worth of properties this year, with expected launches centred in the central [region] in the mid-market segment next year. Kepong, the 72.7-acre (29.42ha) land which we acquired in April, is at the planning stage and expected to be unveiled towards the end of the year with the launch of the first residential tower in 2019,” he said in a statement yesterday.

In Mont Kiara here, the property developer will launch the Residensi Astrea condominium with built-ups ranging from 1,364 sq ft to 1,859 sq ft, with an estimated GDV of RM326.7 million, at the end of the third quarter of 2018 (3Q18).

Eugenia, another phase of Serene Heights in Bangi, which is made up of two-storey terraced homes with an estimated GDV of RM54.8 million, will also be launched in the same quarter.

In Iskandar Puteri, UEM Sunrise intends to introduce Iris Residences in Gerbang Nusajaya with an estimated GDV of RM95.3 million in 4Q18.

“In addition, we plan to launch our first commercial development located within the mature area of Taman Nusantara fronting the Southern Industrial and Logistics Clusters in 4Q18. We believe that the RM136.7 million development will be well received by the market,” he said.

Anwar Syahrin noted that UEM Sunrise has been seeing a steady interest in its completed properties following its “Easy Own Plan” campaign, the first series of the group’s asset inventory monetisation scheme embarked in August 2017.

“This year, we launched the ‘A New Year, A New Home’ campaign in February and recently on Aug 3, we launched another one in conjunction with the celebration of the group’s 50 years of community building. The latest campaign sees us offering special packages for seven of our properties,” he said.

He added that these inventory monetisation schemes managed to reduce the group’s inventory by 11% from RM609.7 million as at end-2017 to RM544.9 million as at end-June 2018.

UEM Sunrise returned to the black in the second quarter of financial year 2018 ended June 30, 2018 (2QFY18), posting a net profit of RM213.79 million compared to a net loss of RM9.84 million a year ago.

UEM Sunrise attributed the better quarterly earnings to recognition of land sales, good construction progress of its property projects, as well as the sales of its completed units driven by its inventory monetisation campaign.

Quarterly revenue jumped 97.1% to RM573.35 million, from RM290.91 million in 2QFY17.

For the first half of the financial year ended June 30, 2018 (1HFY18), the group’s net profit jumped by nearly 18 fold to RM239.08 million, from RM13.47 million a year ago, boosted by a 21.07% increase in revenue to RM861.09 million, from RM711.24 million in 1HFY17.

As at June 30, 2018, its unbilled sales stood at RM4.9 billion.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on Aug 29, 2018.

For more stories, download EdgeProp.my pullout here for free.