Sunday, August 29, 2010

[News] UEM Land Q2 earnings up more than sixfold

UEM Land Holdings Bhd a property developer, said second quarter net profit jumped more than sixfold to RM40.3 million, mainly due to gains from its disposal of Touch 'n Go Sdn Bhd.

The company made a gain of RM25.6 million from selling its 20 per cent stake in Touch 'n Go to PLUS Expressway Bhd for RM33.4 million. The disposal was completed in June this year.

During the quarter ended June 30 2010, the company's revenue grew by 28 per cent to RM88 million, partly driven by higher sales of its industrial land in the Southern Industrial Logistic Clusters.

UEM Land believes it is able to achieve its headline key performance indicators (KPIs) set for this year, which includes an annual revenue growth of 35 per cent and return on equity of 6 per cent, backed by improvement in the property market.

"The group is confident that the property market will continue its recovery in line with the encouraging gross domestic product (GDP) growth achieved by the country for the first half of 2010.

"The property market in Johor generally, and Iskandar Malaysia specifically is expected to further benefit from the recent increase in interest from Singapore.

"We expect the group to benefit from this positive sentiment and will continue to launch new residential projects in Nusajaya, as well as launching new phases of our existing residential projects in Nusajaya and Cyberjaya in the coming months.

"The Group will continue to evaluate opportunities to acquire strategic land parcels outside Nusajaya to expand and grow our business to create sustainable return on investment for our shareholders," it said in a Bursa Malaysia filing yesterday.

The company's share price on Bursa Malaysia declined 4 sen, or 2.38 per cent, to RM1.64. [via]

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Symphony Hills Cyberjaya : Site Progress as at 17th August 2010

Here are some latest site progress photos taken. Not much construction works are going on now. Some of the show houses are going through some sort of renovation works too.

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Thursday, August 5, 2010

News : UEM Land expects brisk Symphony Hills sales


(Business Times) UEM Land Holdings Bhd, the real estate investment and property development arm of UEM Group Bhd, believes its first phase of landed properties launched in Cyberjaya will be snapped up within weeks as homebuyers see value in the properties.

"When one sells, one must sell value," said managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Wan Abdullah Wan Ibrahim in Cyberjaya last Saturday.

Its new development, dubbed Symphony Hills, was unveiled to special invited guests on Saturday.

Wan Abdullah said the response has been "very good" so far as there were interested buyers keen to book the properties prior to the official launch.

Based on its opening weekend alone, it has sold more than 40 units valued at about RM60 million.

He said these landed properties are sold for about RM320 per sq ft, which is competitive against its other landed property developers within the vicinity.

However, he believes Symphony Hills offers greater value to its peers because it is based on the "Connected Intelligent Community" platform. It will also have a clubhouse.

"It's like buying a condominium, only that it is a landed property. So, at about RM320 per sq ft, homebuyers should be able to see the value and potential of it," he said.

The company's residential property development project in Cyberjaya will comprise of 450 units of terrace and semi-detached houses, as well as over 500 units of low-rise apartments.

For the first phase, it will only unveil 122 units of landed properties.

Symphony Hills is also the company's maiden project in Cyberjaya.

There will be four designs of houses under the first phase, namely Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann and Schubert.

The Mozart and Schubert units are terrace houses, while the Schumann units are townhouses, and Beethoven units are semi-detached houses which the company calls it as twin villas.

Mozart and Schubert terrace houses come in various sizes, ranging from 3137 sq ft to 3703 sq ft.

The Schumann townhouse comes in studio and duplex units, while the Beethoven twin villas comes in two types: the three-storey Twin Villa with a total built-up area of 5,661 sq ft and the two-storey version (4,620 sq ft).

Wan Abdullah said more and more people are considering living in Cyberjaya these days, as it is now "more convenient" for people to travel to Cyberjaya.


Monday, August 2, 2010

News : UEM Land cashing in on Cyberjaya revival


CYBERJAYA: UEM Land Holdings Bhd, which will launch its maiden property project in the Klang Valley this weekend, expects “mediocre margins” from the 122 landed strata homes offered under the first phase of its high-end residential development, known as Symphony Hills, in Cyberjaya.

Managing director and chief executive Datuk Wan Abdullah Wan Ibrahim said he was confident buyers would be willing to pay more for future launches at the site once the main components of the development were completed.

“I managed to convince the board of directors that our margins will improve to a ‘decent’ level in upcoming launches after they (buyers) can see what we have delivered,” he told a media preview at the site yesterday.

A number of UEM Land’s projects in Johor have won international acclaim and the company is setting a high target for Symphony Hills.

Going forward, UEM Land will continue to expand its presence outside Johor.

“We have a little war chest that we will use to acquire good landbank in several hotspots,’’ said Wan Abdullah. He identified these so-called hotspots as the Klang Valley, Selangor, Penang and Kota Kinabalu in Sabah.

He said the group would only consider expanding overseas after 2012.

Symphony Hills is located on a 98-acre site near Multimedia University. UEM Land plans to build 2,865 residential and commercial units with a gross development value of RM1bil over the next five to eight years.

Only 410 landed homes are planned for this project, billed as the country’s first “connected intelligent community” development.

“Symphony Hills was conceptualised under a strategic and intelligent masterplan that reinforces aspects of planning, design and technology.

The concept combines the elements of comfort, convenience, community and security,’’ Wan Abdullah said.

The first of the “intelligent” houses will sell for RM1mil to RM2.3mil each, or RM300 to more than RM400 per sq ft, depending on design, size and location.

Wan Abdullah said a “floating pavillion” clubhouse within the development would be ready by the time the first batch of homeowners received their keys.

To ensure the project would live up to its wired and connected billings, UEM Land has roped in network system provider Cisco and Mesiniaga Bhd as partners.

UEM Land is the master developer of Nusajaya, Iskandar Malaysia in Johor, where it has 9,564 acres under various stage of development. The company is also a 25% shareholder in Setia Haruman Sdn Bhd, the master developer of Cyberjaya.

Wan Abdullah credited the Maju Expressway, which significantly cut travel time between Cyberjaya and Kuala Lumpur city centre, as the key to Cyberjaya’s recent revival.

“I believe we are hitting the market at the right time,” he said