Fiamma eyes project launch in KL early next year

PETALING JAYA: Fiamma Holdings Bhd hopes to launch its second property development project in Kuala Lumpur early next year, comprising two blocks of 40-storey service apartments at Jalan Yap Kwan Seng.

The project, that is pending approvals from the relevent authorities, will be located on 0.6ha site near the Public Bank headquarters and the Australian High Commission at the Jalan Ampang intersection.

“The planned development will be bigger than our project at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman,” said the company’s spokesperson.

If everything goes according to plan, Fiamma expects contribution from the upcoming project to lift its revenue and profits from the financial year ending Sept 30, 2016 (FY16) onwards.

Income from property development made up 9.6% of the group’s revenue in FY13.

“We expect higher contribution from this segment in FY14 due to the increased realisation of the present development project which commenced development in the middle of 2012,” said the spokesperson, who declined to be named.

The office and retail project has a gross development value of RM160mil and is almost fully sold.

Fiamma derives the bulk of its revenue from manufacturing and selling home electrical appliances under the brand names Elba, Faber, Rubine, Tuscani, MEC and Haustern. It is also the distributor for brands such as Whirpool, Braun home appliances, Omron, Tuttnauer and Charder.

The company made a net profit of RM24.13mil, or 18.5 sen a share in FY13. Revenue stood at RM211.9mil.

Fiamma had also been paying out steady dividends to its investors in the past five years in tandem with its improving financial outlook. On Jan 27, the company proposed a final dividend of 5 sen per share amounting to RM6.7mil for its shareholders to approve at its upcoming AGM on Feb 19.