Malaysia’s UEM Land, Singapore firms in talks

Malaysian state property developer UEM Land is in talks with Singapore real estate firms about joint projects in a US$105 billion industrial and tourism zone in Malaysia’s south.
 
Malaysia unveiled a blueprint in 2006 to transform the southern tip of Johor state into a regional economic zone for industry, logistics, trade and leisure.

‘We are in various stages of discussion with Singapore interests,’ UEM Land managing director Wan Abdullah Wan Ibrahim told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a real estate event in Singapore.

He said that the involvement of Singapore firms – in particular those linked to the government – would boost investor confidence in the Iskandar Malaysia project, just a few minutes drive across the narrow causeway linking the two countries.

Singapore developers that are part-owned by state investors Temasek include CapitaLand and Keppel Land.

UEM Land is the flagship property company of the UEM Group, formerly called United Engineers Malaysia, which is in turn owned by Malaysia’s state investment company Khazanah Nasional.

Under a revamp of the group announced earlier this year, UEM will list on the Malaysian stock exchange in September by taking over the listing status of UEM World, which last year reported a 4-fold rise in net profit to RM939 million (US$297 million).

Mr Wan Abdullah said UEM Land aimed to be a regional developer with projects in neighbouring countries by 2010 but its immediate priority was to develop its 9,713-ha Nusajaya development in the Iskandar region.

‘There are opportunities today but the board feels we should not divert our attention…but we definitely have the desire to be a global developer.’

Malaysia announced in 2006 plans to set aside 2,200sq-km of land in Johor for a special economic zone that would provide residents and companies in neighbouring Singapore with land for leisure and industry.

Covering an area three times the size of Singapore, Iskandar has attracted Middle Eastern investors including Dubai World as well as multinational companies such as General Electric.

UEM is overseeing the development of a 9,712ha site within the development. — REUTERS

Source : Business Times – 15 Apr 2008