Ivory Properties looking for investors

IVORY Properties Group Bhd is in talks with several parties to jointly develop certain parcels of land at its RM10 billion Bayan Mutiara development.

Its executive director and chief executive officer Murly Manokharan said yesterday that Ivory hopes to seal at least one deal in three months.

"We are looking for investors to jointly develop portions involving the commercial aspect of the proposed Penang World City project, such as the medical facilities and offices which are in the masterplan," he told reporters after the company's annual shareholders' meeting here.

Also present was Ivory deputy chairman and executive director Datuk Seri Nazir Ariff Mushir Ariff.

Murly said interested parties included firms from Singapore, Japan and Kuala Lumpur, but he did not name them.

"The Bayan Mutiara land is not for sale," he stressed, responding to a query if the company was planning to sell some of the land to individual investors.

In March this year, Ivory shareholders gave their nod for the company to buy and develop a 41.02ha site in Bayan Mutiara on Penang island from the Penang Development Corp (PDC) and Chief Minister of Penang (Incorporated).

The 41.5ha - comprising 27.3ha of existing land and 14.2ha of land to be reclaimed - was sold for RM1.07 billion, or RM240 per sq ft and will be paid over five years.

Last November, Ivory announced that it was entering into a 49:51 joint venture with Dijaya Corp Bhd to develop Bayan Mutiara.

Murly said Ivory had been asked by PDC to re-submit its master plan for Bayan Mutiara and include its plans for the land which would be reclaimed.

"We hope to re-submit the overall master plan by September as we are currently in the midst of doing soil investigations and other tests at the site," he added.

Asked to comment on press reports that a plot of land for the building of a mosque had been purportedly sold to Ivory as part of the Bayan Mutiara land deal and had raised the ire of several groups in Penang, Murly said: "It (the issue) is between the non-governmental organisations and state government. It's political, therefore, we don't want to comment."

He said Ivory had obtained planning approval to set up a sales gallery and build show units near the Bayan Mutiara site for the first phase of the project which will see the construction of 1,500 high-rise units.

"Although the prices are not fixed as yet, the units are likely to measure around 600 sq ft and 800 sq ft," Murly said, adding that the first phase of the project, covering 4.22ha with a development value of between RM700 million and RM800 million, will likely be launched by the end of this year or early next year.

Ivory Properties was set up in 1999 and has since involved in property development in Penang and northern Peninsular Malaysia.

By Business Times