SP Setia eyes more land in Iskandar

JOHOR BARU: SP Setia Bhd is on the lookout for more land in Iskandar Malaysia as part of its strategy to strengthen its position in the southern region.

Chief operating officer Datuk Voon Tin Yow said that while South Johor still had large parcels of development land available, the prices were now getting higher.

He said the average development land price in Iskandar now stood between RM15 and RM20 per sq ft, up from between RM5 and RM8 per sq ft six to seven years ago.

“The price of land in South Johor has appreciated over the years, but still remains competitive compared with land prices in the Klang Valley and Penang,” said Voon.

Voon was speaking yesterday at the signing ceremony between SP Setia and Howco Metals Management (M) Sdn Bhd. The latter is setting up an 80,000-sq-ft manufacturing plant on a 2ha site at Setia Business Park located along Jalan Ulu Choh-Gelang Patah with a total investment of US$20mil (RM62.97mil). The plant is expected to be ready in January 2015. Howco was represented by chief executive officer John Ferguson.

The Howco group, founded in Scotland in 1982, is the leading global distributor of raw materials for wellhead and completion equipment for the oil and gas industry.

Currently, it has manufacturing facilities in 15 locations in seven countries with over 1,000 employees. Malaysia is the company’s 16th location.

Voon said SP Setia was not only focusing on Nusajaya when looking for new land in Iskandar, as other development zones in the economic region also offered equal growth opportunities.

“However, we can’t reveal too many details on the land buying in Iskandar, as others might also be going for the same piece of land that we are eyeing,” he added.

Voon said the company was fortunate, as all its projects in South Johor were strategically located within the flagship development zones of Iskandar.

SP Setia’s ongoing projects in Iskandar are Bukit Indah with 40.87ha land left for development, Setia Eco Gardens (193.03ha) and Setia Tropika (74.86ha). Others are Setia Eco Cascadia (60.29ha), Setia Indah (9.30ha), Setia Sky 88 (0.55ha), Setia Business Park (16.18ha) and Setia Business Park II (70.41ha).