SP Setia on track for record year

PROPERTY PROJECTS: Sales expected to hit RM5.5b

SP Setia Bhd is on track to ring up RM5.5 billion worth of sales for its financial year ending October this year, judging by the already good sales the company is making from its projects in the first quarter ended January this year.

SP Setia president and chief executive officer Tan Sri Liew Kee Sin said for the first three months of the year the company raked in sales of RM1.2 billion which did not include the Battersea Power Station property development project in London.

"This year will be a record year for SP Setia ... bear in mind it is not easy to make sales of RM100 million, let alone RM1 billion," Liew told reporters here yesterday after the company's annual and extraordinary general meetings.

Battersea is a 15-year RM40 billion mixed development property project in which SP Setia, Sime Darby Bhd and Employees Provident Fund have an equity stake of 40:40:20 per cent respectively and it is expected to contribute to SP Setia's earnings by 2016.

Liew said the company is still taking in orders for the first phase of Battersea and it will have a clearer picture on sales targets and figures once all the sales and purchase agreements are inked by April this year.

"Some 89 per cent of the project is already booked, which comprises 868 apartment units. About 400 of the buyers are Malaysians while the rest are from Singapore, Hong Kong, the UK and others," said Liew.

Liew added that for this year, Malaysia's most valuable property company by stock value also launched Setia Eco Glades in Cyberjaya, Setia EcoHill in Semenyih and Eco Sanctuary in Singapore.

He said the company, which is controlled by fund manager Permodalan Nasional Bhd, is always on the lookout for new parcels of land such as its 20ha in Bangsar or KL EcoCity, 408ha in Beranang and the British High Commission site in Jalan Ampang.

SP Setia has 3,500ha of landbank, spanning across seven countries.

The company has a workforce of 1,500.