Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts

Tycoon Ng buys another property in Australia

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian tycoon Ming Ng, well known for his investment foray into Australian properties, is believed to be on another buying spree.

This time, Ng, via his family-controlled company Dradgin of Singapore, is said to have purchased a landmark commercial property, 502 Hay Street, in the suburb of Subiaco, the central business district (CBD) of Perth, at an undisclosed price.

The Australian Financial Review reported on Tuesday that Ng had acquired the building from beleaguered Perth-based developer Luke Saraceni, who had to offload the property because of mounting debts.

Dradgin was unavailable for comment at press time.

Ng and his family is said to own several other prime properties in Western Australia, including 168 St George's Terrace in the CBD.

It has been a trend of sort for Malaysia companies to purchase land, develop or acquire prime properties down under.

This include Mulpha International Bhd, which owns Sanctuary Cove, a 474-ha residential and lifestyle property development in Queensland Gold Coast.

Other Malaysian tycoons chose to venture into Britain and they include YTL Corp Bhd, which carries out its utilities activities via subsidiary YTL Power International Bhd.

YTL Power wholly-owns Wessex Water, one of the most efficient water and sewerage operators in Britain.

This acquisition represents YTL's first major foray into Europe and marks the beginning of another exciting chapter in the growth and development of the YTL Group.

However, Ng's property purchase is an interesting one the acquisition was done when the Aussie dollar was almost at its all-time high against the ringgit (A$1: RM3.084).

Ideally, acquisitions are best done when the exchange rate is in favour of the buyer.

A local property analyst said the “right” price to buy could lead to an opportunity gain.

He said this might well be the case with Ng's recent acquisition of 502 Hay Street.

“The acquisition may be a situation of striking or buying when an opportunity arises, despite the high price of the asset, because of future earnings potential,” he said.

However, the analyst said the situation remained speculative as it was difficult to assess the reason for Ming' purchase, especially with so little information provided by the company.

He said it was generally uncommon for local tycoons to acquire prime property, especially in the developed world, when the exchange rate was not to their favour.

The analyst said it was also a risky decision as the stronger currency might suddenly fall.

“There must be a catch somewhere to compensate for buying a property against a stronger exchange,” he noted.

By The Star

Read more

Mulpha sells Hilton Melbourne for RM327mil


Hilton Melbourne Airport Hotel

PETALING JAYA: Mulpha International Bhd will use the RM327mil proceeds from the sale of its Hilton Melbourne Airport Hotel to repay its debt levels unless new investment opportunities arise.

Executive chairman Lee Seng Huang, in an e-mail reply to questions from StarBiz, explained: While we have no current use of the proceeds, we will repay our outstanding facilities as much as possible. But if and when an opportunity comes up, we can redraw our loan facilities to make an acquisition. This is part of our treasury management to ensure we maximise returns on our cash resources.

In a statement to Bursa Malaysia yesterday, Mulpha said that the proceeds, if used to repay debts, could bring down the group's debt levels from RM1.5bil to RM1.18bil.

To recap, yesterday Mulpha said it's wholly-owned subsidiary Mulpha Australia Ltd, had sold the Hilton Melbourne Airport Hotel to Singapore-listed Pan Pacific Hotels Group for A$108.89 (RM337.5mil) cash, with the sale expected to be completed by the first quarter of next year.

Mulpha said the hotel was acquired in June 2004 at a cost of A$40mil (RM120mil) as part of a larger acquisition of a portfolio of properties.

The disposal of Hilton Melbourne Airport Hotel crystalises the embedded asset value in this investment which has significantly appreciated in value since the acquisition in 2004. During this time, the hotel performed exceptionally well and has won numerous awards. The sale will result in a one-off pre-tax gain of A$77mil (RM238.6mil) for the group, Lee said in a statement.

The Hilton Melbourne Airport Hotel is a six-level, four-and-a-half star hotel comprising 276 rooms on a 6,630 sq m land.

Mulpha other assets in Australia include the five-star InterContinental Sydney, a resort-styled property development called Sanctuary Cove in northern Gold Coast and Hayman, a five-star private island destination on the Great Barrier Reef.

Mulpha also owns 25% of Australian-listed FKP Property Group, the largest private owner/operator of retirement villages in Australia and New Zealand. All these assets were acquired by Mulpha Australia between 2002 and 2004.

FKP and Mupha were recently in the news in Australia over rumours that the former's second-largest shareholder, Stockland a leading Australian property developer was seeking to take over FKP.

Lee had then said that Mulpha was not keen on selling its shares in FKP as there was still a lot of upside potential in it. In an earlier interview with StarBiz, Lee also said that Mulpha was inclined to reinvest its profits.

Mulpha's investment philosophy is to maximise the value of its assets and recycle that money into other assets that can generate more value,'' Lee said.

By The Star

Read more