CapitaMalls to invest RM3.5bil in Malaysia
Posted on | May 28, 2010
By THE STAR
SINGAPORE: CapitaMalls Asia Ltd plans to spend RM3.5bil over the next three to five years in Malaysia to either buy or build retail space.
Chief financial officer Ng Kok Siong said the retail space could be in the form of shopping malls, hypermarkets or integrated commercial projects.
“With the amount we have to spend, we can acquire five to seven malls, each with a gross floor area of around 400,000 sq ft. These malls should be accessible within 20 minutes by cars and should be in catchment areas where there is a population of around 400,000,” he said during a briefing to Malaysian journalists.
He said there was a possibility of acquiring hypermarkets, provided they had a gross floor area of 300,000 to 400,000 sq ft.
“If we go into a joint-venture project to develop an integrated commercial scheme, the project must have at least 65% of retail-driven business.”
Ng said the RM3.5bil investment was part of a S$2bil to S$3bil allocation that the group planned to inject into the region, particularly in Malaysia, India and China.
“In these areas our presence is underweight, compared with Singapore where we already have a lot of properties,” he said, adding that the group had plans to place its three shopping malls in the Mines (Selangor), Sungai Wang Plaza (Kuala Lumpur) and Gurney Plaza (Penang) in a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT).
Ng said the group aimed to increase its earnings before tax and interest for the current financial year ending Dec 31 (FY10) by 4% to 6% from S$52.4mil in FY09.
Earlier at a separate briefing, CapitaMalls Trust chief executive officer Simon Ho said
the group currently had 14 properties with an estimated value of S$7.4bil.
“We plan to increase the value to over S$10bil in the next three to four years,” he said.
- Shopping Mall Investment News in Malaysia
You might also like
|
|
|
|
|
Search
