City & Country: Perduren shifts its focus

… as a public-listed company, Perduren cannot just grow on rental income alone — Ong

PERDUREN (M) BHD has been part of the Malaysian corporate scene since 1992. Back then, it was listed on the Second Board of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange as Orlando Holdings Bhd. It changed its name to Perduren in 2006 after disposing of its information technology and garment businesses.

Since then, it has been a principal property investment holding company, with two main assets in Johor Baru — Plaza Sentosa, a commercial complex, and Grand Sentosa Hotel and Holiday Plaza, which has retail and commercial components.

It also has a smaller property in Kuala Lumpur —  Shamelin Business Centre in Taman Shamelin Perkasa, Cheras — where it has its headquarters.

Moving forward, with executive director Datuk C S Ong at the helm, Perduren will no longer just own properties but will start developing them as well.

Ong took up his present post in April 15, 2010. “When I came in, I decided to expand the business and give new direction to the company. So, I decided to go into property development,” says Ong,  a former CEO of Country Heights Holdings Bhd.

Perduren’s maiden project, Shamelin Star, is located on 2.08 acres of leasehold land in Taman Shamelin Perkasa, next to Taman Maluri.

Shamelin Star offers 630 apartments, with built-ups of 720 to 1,200 sq ft, in two 37-storey towers. The units were priced at RM550 psf when launched. There will also be a retail floor with 39,000 sq ft of space.

Shamelin Star, which will be the highest development  in Taman Shamelin Perkasa when completed in 2016, has a gross development value of RM330 million.

Despite Perduren’s  lack of experience in developing high-rises, it has got off to a good start. Capella, the first tower, was officially launched  on July 18, and achieved a take-up of 80%. Regal, the second tower, launched two weeks later, saw 70% of the units booked within three days.

The buyers include business people and top management personnel.

Ong says when he first came in, the company was “quite dormant” in terms of income. This was a challenge on two fronts as Shamelin Star is its maiden property development and Ong did not have any experience in developing high-rises.

However, he explains that the strategy was necessary. “The income has not been attractive enough and as a public-listed company, Perduren  cannot just grow on rental income alone,” he says.

Artist’s impression of Shamelin Star

During his time at Country Heights, he developed mostly landed homes and a few townhouses. “For us, this is a great challenge. So we did research and visited a lot of high-rise projects, including those in Mont’Kiara.”

From his observation of the condominiums and serviced apartments, he felt he could come up with something slightly better.

“We decided to do something along the corridor so that when you come out of the elevators, the corridor doesn’t look so flat. Also, we’re looking at less odious paints. We will be awarding the paint tender soon,” he says.

Buyers will also get an Olympic-sized, 50m by 25m pool, complete with an aqua gym, on the 70,000 sq ft facilities deck on the seventh floor.

Other facilities include a gymnasium, wellness lawn, barbecue area, children’s playground, karaoke area, steam and sauna room, and function hall.

Apart from that, Shamelin Star is awaiting a green building index certification.

Ong describes the location of the project as “impeccable”. Towards the north, the KLCC skyline can be seen from the third floor onwards (the apartments start from the eighth floor), while towards the east, there are views of the Cheras Perkasa Park and Genting Highlands.

On the company’s new direction, Ong says it is not looking at huge projects but pocket developments.  Perduren does not have any landbank for now.

“We wouldn’t want to grow to be in the same league as the big developers, which are basically churning out numbers. We would rather focus on one project because that will enable us to focus on the smaller details like paints and corridors,” he says.

He adds that Perduren is looking more at joint ventures rather than acquiring land. However, should an attractive parcel come up, the company would consider it.

Despite its new focus, it is keeping a close eye on its existing assets.

“We spent RM12 million to upgrade Holiday Plaza in Johor and it will be completed at the end of this year,” he says.

The RM55 million upgrading of the 26-year-old Plaza Sentosa has just been completed. The Grand Sentosa Hotel offers 260 rooms, spread across four levels.  

“After we upgraded Plaza Sentosa, business has improved,” he says.



This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on October 28, 2013.