Mayland mulls listing in three years

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 11): Malaysia Land Properties Sdn Bhd (Mayland) is mulling a public listing on Bursa Malaysia in the next three years, according to its managing director Datuk Kevin Woo.

At a press conference after the launch of Hampton Damansara, a RM678 million serviced apartment project here today, Woo told reporters that the company is in the midst of building a healthier balance sheet, paving the way for a listing on the local stock exchange.

“Definitely, we have that (public listing) in mind, but not with Land & General [Bhd], [it will be] an independent listing, in the next three years,” he said.

One of Mayland’s wholly-owned subsidiaries called Mayland Parkview Sdn Bhd, is the single largest shareholder in Land & General, holding a 31.37% stake as at June 30 this year.

“We are regrouping and selecting our properties, and we are hopeful by the third quarter of next year we can see something meaningful from this exercise,” he said.

Mayland is wholly-owned by Prestige Aspect Sdn Bhd, an entity controlled by prominent Hong Kong-listed hotelier Far East Consortium International Ltd deputy chairman and chief executive officer Tan Sri David Chiu.

Asked how big a stake Chiu would let go through the initial public offering, Woo merely commented that “he is the prime mover of the company, and we all work together”.

Moving forward, Woo said Mayland intends to make more land acquisitions in the Klang Valley because with a weaker ringgit he believes that Malaysian property will become more attractive to overseas investors.

“During the last three years we have been doing a lot of thinking and rebooting out thoughts, we had a consolidation and disposal of some land bank that is not within the Klang Valley, and with that sort of corporate exercise we can see that we will receive some substantial receivables by the second quarter next year, in the region of RM300 million, and we can see a net reduction of our gearing ratio by about RM145 million,” he said.

However, Woo said he is not able to spell out the company’s current gearing ratio off-hand as it is part of a complex inter-related group of companies under Chiu’s portfolio.

“With RM145 million, we are set back to ground zero. That will set us on a healthier balance sheet and with that, we are hopeful that we will have a stronger appetite for stronger acquisitions in the near future,” he said.

Checks with the Companies Commission Malaysia found that Mayland’s net profit for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2014 (FY14) was RM96.32 million, down 29.81% from RM137.22 million in FY13.

FY14’s revenue of RM271.05 million was 39.38% lower than RM447.1 million in FY13.

The group’s gearing ratio stood at 1.31 times as at end FY14, almost unchanged from 1.32 times end FY13.

Apart from Hampton Damansara, Woo revealed that there are two other projects in the pipeline — one of it being One Stonor, a high-end residence project in the Kuala Lumpur City Center and comes with a gross development value (GDV) of RM580 million.

“The third luxury affordable high-end residence project is adjacent to Sierramas West with a GDV of RM600 million. These three projects will give us a total GDV of RM1.8 billion,” he said, adding that Mayland intends to launch One Stonor and Sierramas West projects by the second quarter of next year.

Earlier at the launching ceremony, Woo said Hampton Damansara is a service apartment located at Country Heights Damansara.

Built on 3.2 acres, Hampton Damansara has 700 residential units within twin 43-storey towers.

Woo said the ballpark figure for the development cost is about RM430 million.