Published September 12, 2008

New entity IJM Land aims to expand globally

It plans to launch 28 projects in M'sia over next six months

By PAULINE NG
IN KUALA LUMPUR
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IJM Land, the new entity formed as a result of the merger between the property units of Road Builder Group and IJM Corporation, wants to be an international property player, its enlarged domestic land bank notwithstanding.

'We will certainly go to places where we think we can make money,' IJM Land chairman Krishnan Tan said at the launch of IJM Land's corporate identity yesterday.

The developer of Ocean 8 at Sentosa Cove in Singapore has currently set its sights on Changchun, China, where it has planned a RM500 million (S$208 million) mixed development project, which Mr Tan said 'will certainly not be the last'.

It is also biding its time before making a foray into other developing countries such as Vietnam.

On Singapore, he told BT that IJM's development of Ocean 8 at that time was 'opportunistic', and that although the company had tendered for subsequent plots, it had not been successful.

So profitable was its maiden foray in waterfront housing in Singapore, IJM said, that the project contributed RM26.6 million in pre-tax profit on revenue of RM59 million for its fiscal year ended March 2007.

In its new manifestation, IJM Land's more than 4,000 ha land bank and total assets of some RM3 billion place it as Malaysia's fourth-biggest listed property developer by assets.



Over the next two decades, the company believes its large land bank could potentially realise a gross development value of more than RM20 billion.

Domestically, the new property heavyweight isn't lacking in projects. It has more than 60 ongoing projects and plans to launch another 28 over the next six months.

'Our plate is full,' said IJM Land managing director Soam Heng Choon.

Branding itself as an upmarket developer, the company is currently involved in luxury projects such as Ampersand@Kia Peng in the Kuala Lumpur city centre area, and the Light Waterfront Development in Penang, which Mr Tan assured 'will redefine Penang'.

IJM Corporation's acquisition of the Road Builder group last year also gives it a ready market in the mass housing range. Road Builder is credited with building the Seremban 2 township, which now boasts a population of over 50,000 people.

Mass housing has been more affected in the current soft property market, Mr Soam said, but IJM Land's wide product range would give it greater flexibility in its launches.

'We will put on the market what the market wants and can take,' he said, adding the medium to medium-high range of RM450,000 upwards was 'still doing well'.

Most of the company's land bank is located in the Klang Valley, Negri Sembilan and Malacca. Its total land bank is about one-third the size of Malaysia's largest landowner, conglomerate Sime Darby, which claims to have a land bank of 15,000 ha suitable for property development.