UEM Land Says Property Sales Picking Up

Source : The Business Times, June 23, 2009

(KUALA LUMPUR) Malaysia's UEM Land has seen property sales picking up after a lacklustre first quarter but its goal to grow sales by 20 per cent this year remains challenging, its head said yesterday.

'It's challenging. I will not lead you elsewhere. It's tough but we have not given up,' UEM Land managing director Wan Abdullah Wan Ibrahim told Reuters in an interview.

He said that UEM Land is finalising a plan to raise RM354 million (S$146 million) via bank borrowings and is working on a phase two financing programme.

He declined to provide details or disclose the amount that the company plans to raise, saying that it is looking at various instruments. He added that UEM Land is in 'serious discussions' with four companies for development projects in Iskandar Malaysia, a government-sponsored economic zone in the southern Johor state near Singapore.

Mr Wan Abdullah's remarks came as Dubai-based Damac Properties last week confirmed that it had cancelled a RM396 million land deal with UEM Land in Iskandar.

Khazanah Nasional, the investment arm of the government, controls 77 per cent of UEM Land. -- Reuters