Friday, October 26, 2007

Sunrise keen on overseas property jobs

KUALA LUMPUR: Sunrise Bhd, which has made a name for itself in the development of Mont’Kiara in Kuala Lumpur, is looking at sustainable overseas property development as an option for the future as its landbank in the country depletes.

Executive chairman Tong Kooi Ong said the company had, in the middle of the year, acquired a 4.8-acre freehold site in Vancouver, Canada, for RM112mil that would be rezoned to a 700,000 sq ft net saleable strata-titled residential development with a commercial element.

“Sunrise needs to consider this as an option in the future but we don’t want to do a one-off project, it must be long term and meaningful,” Tong said after the company AGM yesterday.

Sunrise currently has 85.16 acres of undeveloped freehold land in Mont’Kiara.

Tong, who is also executive chairman of Taiga Building Products Ltd, a Canadian distributor of building products, said he hoped there would be more opportunities there but did not discount development ventures in other parts of the world.

The as-yet-unnamed development in the suburb of Richmond, Vancouver, is the second-largest development in the city, he said, adding that the more premium condominium units in the suburb were going for an average of C$500 to C$530 psf while in Vancouver, it was C$800 to C$2,000 psf. The development would be launched in two phases, in mid-2008 and mid-2009.

From left: Sunrise Bhd deputy executive chairman Datuk Allan Lim Kim Huat, Tong Kooi Ong and Sunrise managing director Datuk Michael K.C. Yam at the press conference
The Vancouver development will mark Sunrise’s maiden foray into the North American market. The company’s previous exposure to overseas property development had been small, including a joint venture in Britain and a three-acre freehold site in Sydney, Australia.

Meanwhile, Tong said there were over 6 million sq ft of net saleable area under construction in Mont’Kiara, ranging from developments that were in the beginning stages of construction to those that were just being completed. Going forward, he said, there was over 5 million sq ft of net saleable area in seven projects that would be launched in the near future.

“We’ve over RM1.3bil in unbilled sales to date and, if MK11 is included, we’ll pass the RM2bil mark once the sales and purchase agreements are signed,” Tong said.

The RM800mil MK11 comprises five 43-storey condominium tower blocks on 5.3 acres and will be launched at year-end. Unbilled sales rose 90.8% in the financial year ended June 30, 2007 (FY07) compared with FY06.

The company also plans to launch a similar mixed development project next to its Solaris Dutamas project currently under construction.

Sunrise posted a net profit of RM67.49mil on revenue of RM558.09mil in FY07.

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