MRCB keen to develop land in Sg Buloh: CEO

Thursday, April 1, 2010


MRCB keen to develop land in Sg Buloh: CEO



Construction and property group Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (MRCB), which is building up a war chest for land purchases, is keen to participate in the development of a large area of land in Sungei Buloh, its chief said.

MRCB's controlling shareholder, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and the government will be forming a joint venture to promote the development of 1,214ha there into a new hub for the Klang Valley.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, in announcing the joint venture on Tuesday, said it would lead to over RM5 billion of new investments being made, with the private sector having enormous potential to participate prominently.

"It is our task now to convince EPF to give us some work on the land.
We'd like to participate in the development itself, a part of it, and also provide construction expertise and project management expertise for EPF," MRCB's chief executive officer Mohamed Razeek Hussain told reporters yesterday on the sidelines of the Invest Malaysia conference.

MRCB's stock gained 3.8 per cent to RM1.65 yesterday, as investors bet that the company would be a beneficiary of this project. It was the fourth most actively traded counter.

The company is also looking to buy more premium land in Kuala Lumpur and this is partly why it recently undertook a rights issue to raise up to RM566 million, Mohamed Razeek said.

"The war chest for acquisitions alone is about RM380 million," he said.

The company currently has 1,618ha in Perak and another roughly 6 million sq ft of gross floor area to develop at its flagship development Kuala Lumpur Sentral, he said.

The EPF, which now owns more than 33 per cent of MRCB after the renounceable rights issue, recently made a general offer to buy the rest of the company's shares at RM1.50 each.

The exercise is expected to conclude on April 13.

By Business Times

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