Samsung-UEM consortium wins RM2.12bil KL118 Tower job

PETALING JAYA: The consortium of South Korea-listed Samsung C&T Corp and its local partner UEM Group Bhd is believed to have won the US$505mil (RM2.12bil) construction job for the KL118 Tower, amidst a soft property market along with a glut in office space.

Wire news flashed that Samsung C&T had won a Malaysian construction order worth US$505mil, with the source of this information coming from a company statement by Samsung C&T.

Sources said Samsung C&T is expected to make an announcement to the Korean stock exchange that it had received a letter of award for this project.

According to reports, there were initially six parties bidding for the construction portion of the skyscraper including Samsung-UEM. They were IJM Corp-Norwest Holdings Sdn Bhd-Shimizu Corp, Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd-China State Construction Engineering Corp, WCT Bhd-Arabtec Construction LLC, TSR Capital Bhd-Daewoo Group and Seacera Group Bhd-Spaz Sdn Bhd-China’s Sinohydro Corp-Shanghai Construction Group.

Reports said the UEM-Samsung consortium was picked because of its good relationship with Turner Construction Co, which is the project manager of KL118 Tower.

The KL118 Tower will be Malaysia’s tallest building and is slated to be ready by 2019. It is planned to be over 500m tall and will surpass the 452m Petronas Twin Towers.

Formerly known as Warisan Merdeka, KL118 will also become a new landmark in Kuala Lumpur city centre and is expected to generate a gross development value of more than RM6bil over five years.

Permodalan Nasional Bhd, via its wholly owned subsidiary PNB Merdeka Ventures Sdn Bhd, is the owner of KL118.

The net lettable area for office space alone, excluding the hotel portion, is about 150,000 sq m. The tower will also be connected to a mass rapid transit station.

It is also said that 20 floors would be reserved for a 250-room hotel to be operated by an international luxury hotel group.

Previous reports have stated that the whole development would take shape on 7.6ha located within the area of Stadium Merdeka and Stadium Negara.

Samsung C&T has had experience participating in the building of skyscrapers, which include the Petronas Twin Towers and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is currently the tallest building in the world at 828m.

Samsung C&T was founded in 1938 as the parent company of Samsung Group. After the merger with Samsung Construction in December 1995, Samsung C&T has engaged in global business with offices in around 50 countries.

Following the various mergers over the years, Samsung C&T aims to become a global business partner and lifestyle innovator in the fashion, food, housing, leisure and bio businesses with its engineering and construction, trading and investment, fashion and resort groups.

In 2014, the company had total assets of 9.5 trillion won (US$8.38bil) and a revenue of 5.1 trillion won (US$4.5bil).