Sin Chew Daily - Tropicana made the born of the vibrant city
Group Chief Executive Officer of Tropicana Corp. Bhd. (TROP, 5401, main market, property) (Tropicana) Dato’ Yau Kok Seng stated, the rebranding strategy to “Redefining The Art of Living” has driven the group in corporate growth as one of the leading property developer in Malaysia.
Looking ahead of 2017, he said, although the recent property market remain tense, the group believes that the need for properties will remain unchanged, there will still be demand for properties in prime locations that have accessibility to superb amenities and competitive pricing.
“We will always assure the value of property investors, we believes the current obstacles is not impossible to overcome as the strategy adopted by the group in the past years had certainly guaranteed investor receives return.”
Landbank with gross development value (GDV) of RM 50bil
Dato’ Yau Kok Seng stated in recent financial report that Tropicana’s strategy back in 2016 is mainly to be market driven and to adapt to market demand while focusing on unlocking land bank value in Klang Valley and the northern and southern regions.
To date, the group owns more than 1,600 acres of landbank with gross development value (GDV) of beyond RM 50bil in Malaysia market.
For the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2016, Tropicana reported revenue of RM 1.46bil, an increase of 16.5% compared to RM1.25bil recorded last year due to higher work in progress from the group’s on-going developments in Klang Valley and the northern region.
Meanwhile, Tropicana said that a one-off gain on disposals of properties and a subsidiary of RM 148.5mil reported in the preceding year caused the group to record lower pre-tax profit and net profit of RM 168mil and RM 115mil respectively in 2016.
For the year in review, the group’s net gearing ratio is rather low at 0.31 times contribution from group’s strategy of unlocking land bank value, as well as reduced finance charges from de-gearing measures.
Despite the challenging operation period, the Board of Directors have declared a first single-tier interim dividend of 2.5 sen on 24 February 2017 and suggested to declare second single-tier interim dividend of 1.2 sen, which lead to a total dividend of 3.7 sen.
Through the mixed integrated development of combining residential and commercial units, the rebranding strategy of “Redefining The Art of Living” fabricated vibrant city that cater the evolving market needs.
Property development spread over variety area
In Malaysia, property market is a competitive market where the trend shows that there’s rising number of homebuyers is younger generation. Study shows that recently Malaysia has majority of younger generation that mainly consisting generation Y and millenniums, which made up of 38.2% or 10.8bil of the population.
The group has property development in certain places that streategically located at Penang Island, which is Penang WorldCity Tropicana Bay Residences, a waterfront condominium developed by partnership of the group and Ivory Properties Group.
Located at Selangor and neighboring to Kota Kemuning, the 863-acre of Tropicana Aman is a mixed integrated development of semi-detached houses and commercial units that feature 85-acre of Central Park, biking and walking tracks as well as greenery environment.
The 17-acre of Tropicana Garden is the new development at Kota Damansara that comprises high-rise residential units, offices and 1mil sq. ft. of shopping mall, as well as link directly to MRT Surian Station.
The group’s other properties include Tropicana Heights at Kajang and Tropicana Metropark at Subang Jaya.
On top of that, Tropicana Corp. Bhd. marked the completion of concrete construction for W KL Hotel & The Residence, green development that located in Kuala Lumpur’s Golden Triangle, on September 2016.
Education line as new channel of income
Apart from property development, the group’s development also steers to education industry with the establishment of St. Joseph’s Institution Internation School Malaysia (Tropicana PJ Campus) at August 28, 2016. It is expected to be another channel of income for the group.
Besides, GEMS International School and Tenby International School at Tropicana Aman is expected to starts it first intake in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
Picture caption:
Dato’ Yau Kok Seng: Although the property market remains tense, Tropicana Corp. Bhd. believes that the need for properties will remain unchanged.
