KUALA LUMPUR: TA Global Bhd, a 63.08%-owned subsidiary of TA Enterprise Bhd, will turn two plots of land in Jalan P Ramlee here known as TA3 and TA4 that are currently used as car parks, into two commercial tower blocks, said its group managing director and chief executive officer Datin Alicia Tan Kuay Fong.

Tan said the group had put out a tender for the construction of the foundations of the two buildings to interested parties last month. The tender period closes on June 27.

“A lot of people have come to pick up the tender documents, and a handful [of them] have expressed their interest,” she told a press conference after the annual general meetings of TA Global  and TA Enterprise last Friday.

Construction of the substructure is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of this year.

The two plots of land span across 2.47 acres (one hectare) and is located adjacent to the group’s office block, Menara TA One.

“One tower will be [developed into] a hotel and serviced apartment block. At the moment what has been approved is for 31 storeys (or 248 units) for the serviced apartments and nine storeys (96 rooms) for the hotel. We want to add more rooms to the hotel, so we will probably have to take it down from the residences, which means we have to work out the numbers with the operators,” said Tan.

“The second tower will be a residential block featuring 40 storeys or 216 units, and a retail podium,” she added.

According to TA Global’s 2014 annual report, the estimated gross development value (GDV) of the project is RM1.4 billion.

As for other local property projects, Tan said there will be no launches until the second quarter of 2015, after the goods and services tax has been implemented in April next year, with more to come in 2016.

“Like other developers, we also had to diversify outside Malaysia since there is a dampening in the local property sector due to a number of cooling measures introduced by the government [last year to arrest rising property prices],” she said.

The group’s notable overseas developments include Little Bay Cove in Sydney, Australia and Trump International Hotel & Tower in Vancouver in Canada.

Tan said both projects are expected to start contributing to the group’s cashflow in the financial year ending Jan 31, 2017 (FY17).

Little Bay Cove has a GDV of A$600 million (RM1.82 billion) and currently the development approval for the building of 66 townhouses and 224 low-rise luxury apartments has been obtained and the residential units are ready for sale and construction.

Tan (right) and executive director of TA Global Bhd Kimmy Khoo after the AGM. Tan is not discounting the possibility of a merger and acquisition for the group’s stockbroking business.


Trump International has a GDV of C$496 million (RM1.49 billion) and construction of the tower is nearly 50% complete, with full completion estimated to be in mid-2016. The project has already acheived 46.3% sales, valued at C$154.6 million as of April this year.

Currently, the group’s overseas hotel property projects contribute more than 60% to the group’s revenue.

Meanwhile, Tan is not discounting the possibility of a merger and acquisition for the group’s stockbroking business, TA Securities Holdings Bhd, following the recent Affin Holdings Bhd-HwangDBS Investment Bank Bhd merger. TA Securities remains as one of the last standalone brokers that are owned and run by individuals.

“There must be chemistry. However, this is a decision that is up to the board and the shareholders. I think some of the offers that were made in the past were not bad,” she said.

For FY14, the broking and financial services division registered a 10% year-on-year decline to RM115.9 million in revenue — accounting for 13.3% of the group’s total revenue of RM864.7 million.


This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on June 23, 2014.

 

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