PNB confirms RM3.4b Menara KL118 contract awarded

PNB president and group chief executive Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman

KUALA LUMPUR:  Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) has awarded the contract to build the Menara Wawasan or also known as Menara KL118 to the joint venture of South Korea’s Samsung C&T and UEM Group Bhd.

PNB president and group chief executive Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman said on Monday: “The contract is worth about RM3.4bil”.

He was speaking to reporters after announcing the income distribution of ASN 3.

The tower, located within the enclave of Merdeka Stadium and Stadium Negara, would be the tallest building in the country when completed in the next four years.

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.

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.

PNB, 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.