Plenitude hotel: Plenitude owns Four Points by Sheraton in Penang.
KUALA LUMPUR: Developer Plenitude Bhd
, which recently completed a merger with The Nomad Group Bhd, is keeping its sales target at RM250mil for 2016 despite softening demand in the property market.
The group has lined up RM1bil worth of new properties to be launched over the next two years.
“We will be cautious in launching our projects, going forward,” executive chairman
Chua Elsie told reporters after Plenitude’s 15th AGM here yesterday.
“Our hotels in Penang are seeing 65% to 70% occupancy rates, which is quite healthy,” said Chua.
While the group intends to focus on the hotels it acquired, the property division would still remain the group’s core business, said Chua, adding that it would progressively bring the property and hotel divisions ratio to 80:20 in the near future from the present 90:10.
Including its first Four Points by Sheraton Penang Hotel, Plenitude has five hotels and one serviced residence in Kuala Lumpur and Penang.
The group had recently embarked on an RM50mil refurbishment exercise to upgrade Nomad Sucasa Hotel in Jalan Ampang and is now on a rebranding strategy to add value to the property.
“We will be upgrading all the other hotels in stages, as they are performing well in terms of occupancy rates.”
Commenting on the property division, Chua said it was seeing more take-up rates from foreign investors now for its 149-unit high-rise Marin At Ferringhi condominium project in Penang, but that its Desa Tebrau development in Iskandar has slowed down.
Plenitude has 1,500 acres of undeveloped land in Taman Desa Tebrau, Johor, Taman Putra Prima in Puchong, Penang island and Bukit Bintang in Sungai Petani with a combined gross development value of RM12bil.
Chua said that with prudent and strategic planning, these would be developed over the next 10 years.
For the financial year ended June 30, 2015 the group had cash and cash equivalents amounting to RM323.17mil, while borrowings stood at RM46.28mil.
