Ireka Corp Bhd executive director Lai Voon Hon
KUALA LUMPUR: Ireka Corp Bhd
expects to turn around its business, moving forward, following the launch of several projects with a gross development value of more than RM1bil, group managing director Lai Voon Hon said.
The property developer’s Ireka condominium project for middle-income earners, called dwi@Rimbun Kasia in Nilai, Negri Sembilan, is expected to retail between RM200,000 and RM400,000 per unit.
“This is the company’s first project in Nilai and overall, there will be five phases of development, which will keep the group busy for the next five years,” he told reporters after the company’s AGM.
Lai said the group was confident of benefiting from this project, despite the soft property market.
He said Ireka did not launch anything in the last 1½ years but felt that the time was right now as the market was returning to normalcy.
The group would launch its maiden freehold ASTA Enterprise Industrial Park with 18 units in Kajang, Selangor, next week.
At a preview three months ago, 45% of units were already sold.
“There is no doubt that not being able to launch any development in the last 1½ years has been a small setback for us, But we are confident that our cautious approach of waiting for the market to stabilise before launching any project, has paid off.
“We are looking forward to our foray into the mid-market property sector in Nilai and Kajang. Its new and exciting for us and hopefully it will result in good shareholder value,” he said.
on Monday, the group reported a pre-tax profit of RM28.06mil for the first quarter ended June 30, 2016 compared with a pre-tax loss of RM3.87mil reported in the corresponding period.
This was attributed to the disposal of Alof Kuala Lumpur Sentral Hotel by its unit, Aseana Properties Ltd, for RM418.7mil.
However, revenue was slightly lower at RM63.72mil versus RM66.42mil previously.
As for its construction division, Ireka Engineering & Construction Sdn Bhd expects to commence several internal projects worth RM700mil.
“We are looking to bid for projects in the public and private sectors.
“For the public sector, infrastructure projects implemented by the Government; Mass Rapid Transit and Light Rail Transit 3 (line 2), while in the private sector, we will still be looking at high-rise building projects from developers like UEM Land and SP Setia.
“These are clients, we are already working with them and these are areas that we are focusing on,” he said, adding that the company’s expertise were currently developing high-rise buildings.
Lai said the construction division accounted for 90% of the group’s revenue while the property sector made up the remainder.
“We hope to balance this out to a 50:50 ratio by next year,” he added. - Bernama
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