Busy times ahead for Sunrise

By theSun

THE next two years will be a busy one for Sunrise Bhd as the developer will be launching
its first project in North America, a 4.8-acre site in Richmond, Canada, as well as three
new products in its flagship development of Mont’Kiara Integrated Global Village.

Sunrise executive chairman Tong Kooi Ong (pix) said overseas ventures are vital to the
future of the group. “Although the gross margins from developing in Canada are
not as high as Mont’Kiara’s, we need to be farsighted and consider going offshore should
things slow down on the local front,” he said, after the company’s 38th annual general
meeting in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Sunrise will be developing 700,000 sq ft of apartments with some commercial elements in
Richmond, a suburb south of Vancouver. The site, which was bought for RM112 million in June
will be launched by June 2009 and construction, is slated to begin in mid-2008.


In Sunrise Mont’Kiara, Tong said it will not only be launching MK28, MK20 and 19 bungalows
in The Residence, but have managed to sell all units in 11@ Mont’Kiara. “Without being
officially launched, all units in 11@Mont’Kiara, except the 30% bumiputera allocation have
been sold. MK28 will offer 1.1 million sq ft of condominiums at a slightly lower premium
range than 11@Mont’Kiara. MK20 will have components of a shopping mall, offices and
residences,” he said.


The scale model of MK11

The RM800-million 11@Mont’Kiara is Sunrise’s latest 6-star luxury condo, with five
towers with a stunning sky bridge. The 5.4- acre project houses 342 condo units with sizes
between 2,068 and 7,688 sq ft and prices from RM727 psf.

Meanwhile, the developer will be completing the construction of 19 bungalows at The
Residence by March 2008 and units are being built under the build-then-sell concept. The
project is a bungalow precinct comprising 47 residences with sizes ranging from 7,500 to
16,000 sq ft.

Tong said that its landbank is a major input to the group’s production and key to its
future. “During the year we used 7.35-acres in Mont’Kiara for 10@Mont’Kiara, while we
acquired another 4.68 acres. Our Mont’Kiara landbank stands at 85.16 acres.
Sunrise also bought a 1.81-acre plot in the Kuala Lumpur city centre. We
plan to build over 500,000 sq ft of office space,” he said.

On two business areas (the Seremban Forest Heights township and a 58-acre plot in Kajang) where Sunrise continued to perform poorly, Tong said that they are looking into ways of improving.

“We are considering whether we want to continue selling the units in our joint-venture project with Singapore’s MCL Land in Seremban or to slow down the development,
while waiting for the natural demand to pick up,” he said.

Sunrise posted record quarterly earnings for the first quarter of its June 2008 financial year-end, boosted by the sale of retail units and car parks in Plaza Mont’Kiara, higher sales of existing launches and progressive billings from its on- going projects.

For the three-month period ended Sept 30, Sunrise recorded a turnover of RM220 million,
a 114% increase and pre-tax profits of RM85.6 million, a 179% hike compared with the previous
year’s corresponding quarter.

The group’s unbilled sales stood at a significant RM1.3 billion, one of the highest
among Malaysia’s listed property companies.
For the financial year ended June 30, 2007 Sunrise achieved a 55% growth in revenue to RM558 million from 2006’s RM359 million.