Glomac to sign S&P for tower project early-2008

PROPERTY developer Glomac Bhd hopes to sign the sales and purchase agreement for its yet-to-be-built Glomac Tower by early next year.

"While an offer of RM577 million was made, we are only ready to receive any offers once all the approvals are in place," said Glomac group managing director Datuk Fateh Iskandar Mohamed Mansor after the official opening of supermarket Central Mart in Glomac's Sungai Buloh township, Saujana Utama.

He said the buyer was Prestige Scale Sdn Bhd, which was affiliated to the national financial institution but declined to elaborate. "We will provide more details in a month or so," he added.

On building more Central Mart supermarkets, Fateh Iskandar said Glomac aims to have the supermarket in its Johor and Rawang townships.

"In Johor, we will try to do it within the next two years because the population of 10,000 is sufficient to support the existence of Central Mart," he said.

As for Rawang, it would be another four years before a Central Mart is developed there. The estimated cost of development for each Central Mart is RM9 million.

Fateh Iskandar added that he had tied up with Trendcell Sdn Bhd to develop Central Mart.

On overseas operations, he said Glomac will complete its due dilligence on a possible development in India and make an announcement by year-end. "We are looking at a gross development value of RM800 million for a township," he said.

He added that the company would consider selling its Australian and Thai investments if Glomac received offers with a capital appreciation of 20 per cent and above.

"We bought the building in Melbourne for A$30 million (RM89.1 million) and spent A$1 million (RM2.97 million) refurbishing it. Its present yield is eight per cent compared to six per cent before the refurbishment," he said.

"In Thailand, our 600,000 sq ft warehouse is fully tenanted with a rental yield of 13 per cent."

Glomac's overseas operations are expected to contribute 15 to 20 per cent to its revenue in three to four years.

He said that Glomac has future ongoing developments of RM3.3 billion, including a 2.83-hectare commercial development known as Glomac Damansara in Kuala Lumpur.

By New Straits Times (By Jeeva Arulampalam)