UEM Land targets foreign property buyers

NUSAJAYA: UEM Land Sdn Bhd is eyeing international buyers for its high-end residential properties in Nusajaya city within the Iskandar Development Region (IDR). Managing director Wan Abdullah Wan Ibrahim said apart from Singaporeans and expatriates based in the republic, it was also targeting European and Middle Eastern buyers.He said the latter group would be courted under the Malaysia My Second Home programme due to the strong euro and petrodollar.“We will be taking part in property shows in Singapore next month and Dubai in October to promote our products in Nusajaya,” Wan Abdullah told StarBiz at the launch of East Ledang on Saturday.Read more

(The Star 5-3-2008)

Big jump in revenue from sales at property unit

KUALA LUMPUR: UEM Land Sdn Bhd, which will be listed in September should the restructuring exercise it will undergo soon pass through smoothly, has a lot of work in hand. It is the master developer of the 24,000-acre Bandar Nusajaya located in Gelang Patah in southwestern Johor. Bandar Nusajaya is also in the heart of the Iskandar Development Region (IDR) and UEM Land is currently developing 11,000 acres of the land. According to UEM Land managing director Wan Abdullah Wan Ibrahim at a media briefing yesterday, the company has seen substantial improvement in revenue from sales of residential units, industrial plots and sale of land to other developers for co-development purposes. “Our growth strategy is to create a nucleus for the IDR via seven catalyst development projects. Read more

(The Star 16-2-2008)

Analysts mixed on UEM World restructuring

An analyst says the move is minimal value-enhancing, while another says it's good for shareholders to have that focus as it is changing into a pure-play property developer. ANALYSTS were mixed in their opinions as to whether the proposed restructuring of UEM World Bhd would be good for all its shareholders.Most liked the fact that the deal allows investors to have direct exposure to the group's biggest asset, the soon-to-be-listed UEM Land, master developer of the Iskandar Development Region in Johor.UEM Land is 71.5 per cent owned by UEM World."It's changing from a conglomerate to a pure-play property development company. It's good for shareholders to have that focus," said an analyst from Hwang-DBS Vickers Research. Read more

(New Straits Times 16-2-2008)

UEM World revamps

Many investors in UEM World are mainly interested in UEM Land and this exercise will allow them to participate in a pure property firm, says UEM World managing director. UEM World Bhd plans to become a pure property company by spinning off its cement and drug-making businesses in a sale to its shareholders.UEM Land Sdn Bhd, its property unit that's overseeing Malaysia's biggest property project in Johor, will be listed while UEM World will be de-listed under its latest restructuring exercise."The exercise is carried out to provide the platform for further growth of our business. UEM Land in recent periods has increasingly become the driver for the share price of UEM World," UEM World managing director Datuk Ahmad Pardas Senin said in a media briefing in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.Read more

(New Straits Times 16-2-2008)

Possible scenarios for UEM World revamp

UEM World Bhd, which is set to announce a change in its business direction today, may say it plans to take its listed units private via share swaps, says JPMorgan."Such an exercise could be aimed at upstreaming all the cash within the subsidiaries to finance the working capital needs for Iskandar Development Region (Iskandar)," the foreign research house told clients in a note outlining two possible scenarios for UEM World's restructuring.Gross cash from UEM World's four listed units - UEM Builders, Cement Industries of Malaysia, Opus Group and Pharmaniaga - is estimated at around RM837 million.UEM World owns 71.5 per cent of UEM Land, which is the master developer of Iskandar's Bandar Nusajaya, Malaysia's biggest property project.The other scenario, which JPMorgan believes is less likely to happen, is for UEM World to raise the cash it needs by disposing of or paring down its stakes in the listed units, possibly to Middle Eastern investors. This way, the only asset remaining in the company would be UEM Land. "This could then lead to a backdoor listing of UEM Land, and achieves the objectives of 'ring-fencing' the IDR (Iskandar) investment case away from the remaining businesses," JPMorgan said.It however believes that this scenario would be counter-intuitive to Khazanah Nasional Bhd's restructuring thrusts for the government-linked company. Khazanah owns 51.9 per cent of UEM World.

(New Straits Times 15-2-2008)