BLand may put projects on hold

KUALA LUMPUR: Property company Berjaya Land Bhd may put some of its projects on hold due to the current bearish market sentiment but is still confident of generating some RM350mil in property sales in its financial year ending April 30, 2009, said chief executive officer Datuk Francis Ng.

But the company’s huge projects in Vietnam would not be affected, Ng said, pointing out he expected the property slowdown in Vietnam to be short term.

“We will proceed with our Vietnam ventures because it is a long term investment,” he said, adding that the company’s four property development projects in Vietnam were worth about US$2.5bil in gross development value (GDV).

He said he expected the overseas markets to contribute 30% of the company’s revenue in the next three to four years.

Ng said the global financial crisis and rising cost of building materials had brought on a slowdown in the local property market and that the company might have to review and postpone some projects until the market recovered.

But he said other new launches would boost the company’s total property sales and that Berjaya Land was confident of achieving RM300mil to RM350mil in sales this financial year.

Berjaya Land is scheduled to launch its Berjaya Park project in Shah Alam and Vasana Link Bungalows development in Seputih Heights before the end of the year.

“We are currently in talks for en-bloc sales of the properties,” Ng said, adding that the GDV for its 25-unit Vasana Link project was RM175mil.

“We have sold about RM200mil worth of properties currently,” he said after a signing ceremony between Berjaya Golf Resort Bhd and Hanju Savana(M) Sdn Bhd yesterday.

Berjaya Land’s subsidiary Berjaya Golf Resort signed a sale and purchase agreement with Hanju I&D Co Ltd’s subsidiary Hanju Savana, for the sale of its entire two blocks of the 20-storey Covillea Bukit Jalil condominiums for a total of RM150mil.

Ng said Berjaya Land was not in a hurry to raise new funds as it had about RM1.8bil from previous fund-rasing exercises, which it would use for future expansion.

By The Star