Winning Kwasa Land bid a boost to TRC, say analysts

by **Cals** Wed 29 Jan 2014, 10:05

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Levina Lim of theedgemalaysia.com

Wednesday, 29 January 2014 09:28

KUALA LUMPUR: Winning the bumiputera companies’ category bid for the Employee Provident Fund’s (EPF) Kwasa Damansara township development will give TRC Synergy Bhd’s property segment a nice boost, say analysts.

“Over the last two years, property contribution has been relatively insignificant at 4-8% of (its) revenue.

“However, this is set to increase significantly going forward given two key developments coupled with the recent Kwasa Damansara land acquisition,” said Alliance Research analyst Jeremy Goh.

Revenue for TRC’s property development segment for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2012 (FY2012) stood at RM44.47 million, which accounted for 7.85% of total revenue. It is more than double that of RM18.95 million of property segment revenue recorded in FY2011.

Meanwhile, construction activity — which accounted for 83.6% of total revenue in FY2012 — stood at RM473.4 million, 140% higher than FY2011.

TRC owns properties in Sarawak, Johor, Selangor, and Negeri Sembilan.

It was announced on Monday that Pink Corner Sdn Bhd, which has Tan Sri Azman Yahya as a director, and TRC Synergy’s wholly-owned subsidiary, TRC Land Sdn Bhd, were the first two winning bidders under the bumiputera companies’ category to develop part of the RM50 billion Kwasa Damansara township.

Pink Corner was the highest bidder for 1.73 hectares of land at Lot 73535 in Mukim Sungai Buloh in Petaling district for RM13.07 million or RM70 per sq ft (psf), while TRC Land Sdn Bhd was the highest bidder for 0.695ha at Lot 73971 in Sungai Buloh in Petaling district for RM6.133 million or RM82 psf.

According to JF Apex, the deal is good and gives a timely boost to TRC’s property division.

“We deem the bid price of RM82 psf for the land fair compared to nearby transacted land price whereby Mah Sing paid RM 298 psf for the Damansara Sentral project land last year.

“Whilst TRC has not decided on the final development plan on the land, we believe the Group could undertake the development of serviced apartments in view of the small size of the land,” said JF Apex Securities.

Datuk Abdul Aziz Mohamad, executive-director of TRC Synergy told The Edge Financial Daily that it has no plans for the development of the piece of land it just won yet.

“We also made a bid for the other piece of land [won by Pink Corner] but did not win,” he said.

According to a filing search, Pink Corner shares its address with Symphony House Bhd and Symphony Life Bhd, and its directors include Azman Yahya, who is a major shareholder of both the listed companies.

Kwasa Land said in a statement that both Pink Corner and TRC were part of a group of nine bidders that participated in the bids for the land that were advertised for sale to bumiputeras in August 2013.

The sale of the plots of land was specifically meant to address the Bumiputera Economic Empowerment Council’s desire of enhancing bumiputera equity and asset ownership in the corporate sector, it said.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 29, 2014.