Chairman Datuk Dusuki Ahmad said ARB will buy properties that offer more than eight per cent yields for its AmanahRaya Real Estate Investment Trust (AR-REIT).
GROWTH PLANS: (From left) Ahmad Rodzi, Dusuki and Mustapha Kamal at the press conference.
AR-REIT, listed in February last year and worth RM645.52 million, is the first state-owned property trust and Malaysia's second largest REIT.
It is managed by ARB's asset management arm, AmanahRaya-JMF Asset Management Sdn Bhd, one of the leading fund management firms in the country with more than RM6 billion of assets under management.
Dusuki said ARB is committed to growing the REIT and will buy properties in Selangor, including Cyberjaya, but cautiously.
"The properties will be held under our own portfolio. When the time is right, they may be disposed of to the REIT," he said.
He was speaking to Business Times yesterday after inking a deal with the Emkay group to buy two six-storey commercial blocks at MKN Embassy Techzone and Bangunan Mustapha Kamal in Cyberjaya, worth a combined RM266 million.
The investments for commercial properties in Cyberjaya are the first for ARB.
Emkay, controlled by developer Tan Sri Mustapha Kamal Abu Bakar, is developing Techzone, a 4ha information technology park, under a 60:40 partnership with Bangalore's Embassy Group.
It features four purpose-built blocks worth RM350 million. Blocks A and B have been constructed and the other two will be ready by the end of next year.
ARB is buying Blocks A and B, which have been leased for 10 to 15 years to the Public Service Department and the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit.
Bangunan Mustapha Kamal has a long-term tenancy agreement with the Education Ministry.
"The buildings offer more than eight per cent yields per year, giving us reasons to want to pump them into the REIT," Dusuki said.
Meanwhile, Emkay said it was considering launching Phase Two of Techzone, comprising eight commercial blocks sprawled over 8ha, adjacent to the four blocks.
Dusuki said ARB may look at buying one or two blocks under the second phase.
At a press conference later, ARB group managing director Datuk Ahmad Rodzi Pawanteh said it was in discussions on the possibility of further investments in Cyberjaya.
He also said that it would be up to AR-REIT to consider injecting the three commercial blocks into its fund. "At this point, we are still keeping it in our (ARB) portfolio and will decide if we want to dispose of it later to the REIT."
By New Straits Times (by Sharen Kaur)
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1 comment:
Another bailout for MK properties.
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