RM20m facelift for TAE head office

PROPERTY and financial services firm TA Enterprise Bhd (TAE) plans to spend some RM20 million on the facelift of its corporate headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, as it seeks to raise rental and higher yield.

The 34-storey Menara TA One on Jalan P. Ramlee is currently tenanted for an average of RM4.50 to RM5 per sq ft.

It is learnt that TAE is getting about five per cent yield per year from the property, but it wants to increase this to over seven per cent.

"TAE is still mapping out the plan. It hopes to start upgrading works on the building by the end of this year. It will add new security and improve the quality of the building," a source familiar with the plan said.
TAE managing director and chief executive officer Datin Alicia Tiah confirmed the company's plan to upgrade Menara TA One as part of plans to raise its rental rates.

She said TAE will move its non-essential operations such as TA Securities, TA Futures and TA Investment Management from Menara TA One to Wisma Dijaya in Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya to spearhead the plan.

TAE is buying the four-storey Wisma Dijaya for RM26 million from Elite Meridian Sdn Bhd, which is controlled by Tan Sri Danny Tan Chee Sing, who is group chief executive officer of Dijaya Corp Bhd.

"There is no point for us to occupy a few floors in Menara TA. I prefer that we move out some of the operations so that we have more space to rent. That way, we can command a better yield.

"We will be doing this from the fourth quarter of this year," Tiah told Business Times in Kuala Lumpur.

Wisma Dijaya currently houses Dijaya Corp's headquarters, but the company is expected to relocate its operations to the 12-storey Tropicana City Office Tower at Tropicana City in Petaling Jaya.

Tiah also said TAE plans to develop the 31.5ha freehold commercial land in Bukit Beruntung, Selangor, into a commercial and industrial development, worth over RM500 million, from 2011.

TAE is buying the land from Europlus Corp Sdn Bhd, which is part of Talam Corp Bhd, for RM44.9 million cash. The land deal is expected to be completed by January 31 2010.

"Bukit Berunting is coming up. The land we have is located next to Tesco's distribution centre. There are other pipeline developments in the area, which will help boost our project when we launch it," she said.

By Business Times (by Sharen Kaur)