LBS Bina targets RM1 billion sales for FY2013

PETALING JAYA (Jan 3): After exceeding its sales target of RM800 million in 2012, property developer LBS Bina Group Bhd is raising the sales target to RM1 billion for its financial year ending Dec 31, 2013 (FY2013).

The target will be supported by strong unbilled sales and high gross development value (GDV) of new launches and upcoming projects.

At a media briefing on Jan 3, managing director Datuk Lim Hock San said the group’s unprecedented sales of RM871 million in FY2012 rose 31.37% from the previous financial year’s RM663 million.

“Our RM1 billion target sales (for FY2013) are 14.8% higher than the actual sales in FY2012,” he said.

Lim added that the target is a modest increase as the group does not want to set too high an expectation.

According to Lim, LBS’s new launches for 2013 and ongoing developments comprise approximately 5,600 homes with a total GDV of RM3 billion. Some 42% of the properties are worth between RM400,000 and RM1 million per unit while 27% are properties valued above RM1 million. Meanwhile, to meet the growing demand for affordable homes, 31% of the properties are valued below RM400,000.

As of end-December, LBS had RM745 million worth of unbilled sales. Of that, RM400 million came from its Bandar Saujana Putra township, RM246 million from D’Island Residence and RM99 million from other projects.

He said more than 80% of the unbilled sales will contribute to the group’s performance in this financial year.

Meanwhile, LBS is in the final stages of negotiations on the cash-equity deal which will turn the group as a substantial shareholder of Hong Kong-listed Jiuzhou Development Co Ltd (JDCL), a state-owned company that runs ferry services and a hotel chain in China.

“We entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) (with Jiuzhou Technology Co Ltd, a wholly owned unit of JDCL) last April. We had six months to negotiate on the terms. As the due date expired in October, both sides have agreed to extend the negotiations until April this year,” said Lim.

The MoU provides for the parties to negotiate exclusively with each other and finalise the scope and terms of a sale and purchase agreement for LBS’s wholly owned unit Dragon Hill Corp Ltd.

Should this deal materialise, LBS may reap up to RM652 million based on an indicative price of about HK$1.65 billion. The MoU was an expression of Jiuzhou Technology’s intention to acquire up to 100% but not less than 60% equity interest in Dragon Hill, which owns 60% of a 36-hole golf course and 197 acres of developable land.