London hotel buy based on market price, says Mohd Isa

YAN: Felda chairman Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad said the corporation’s purchase of the Grand Plaza Serviced Apartments in London was made based on the market price.

“The purchase was made by Felda Investment Corp Sdn Bhd and not Felda Global Ventures Sdn Bhd,” he told reporters after attending Felda Foundation’s “We Care” meeting yesterday.

He refuted claims by DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng on Wednesday that Felda paid an inflated price of £97.9 million (RM495 million) when the market price was only £80 million.

The Penang chief minister had said the purchase was not beneficial to the company.

Isa accused Lim of making up the story of the property purchase as this was not the first time Felda had bought properties in London.

“Actually, prior to the purchases of the Grand Borneo Hotel in Kota Kinabalu and Grand Plaza in London, we already had eight hotels,” he said.

He declined to reveal their locations.

Isa said it was not a problem for Felda to buy another hotel as it has been in this business and it will continue to do so.

Residential Land sold the freehold Grand Plaza Serviced Apartments to FIC UK Properties, a subsidiary of Felda, last month.

It is one of London’s largest serviced apartment buildings, containing 198 apartment units across 13 period stucco fronted buildings over 105,044 square feet. — Bernama


This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on October 25, 2013.