PETALING JAYA: Tropicana Corp Bhd has identified RM2bil worth of assets to be sold over the next two years, as the company seeks to raise cash and pare down its debts.
The assets are land, property investments as well as non-core asserts sited primarily in the Klang Valley and Iskandar Malaysia.
“We have drawn up our list and it includes our smaller parcels of land. These deals give us very good value and brings down our gearing,” said Tropicana group chief executive officer Datuk Yau Kok Seng.
He said the group intended to reduce its current gearing ratio of 0.616 times to 0.3 times by 2016.
“So far, land sales in the Canal City project in Selangor to Eco World Development Bhd, as well as a recent sale to Hong Kong-listed Agile Property Holdings Ltd have collectively raked in RM1.05bil,” he said.
Yau said the master plan for the joint venture with Agile was being finalised and that the gross development value of the project would be over RM1bil.
“The partnership will enhance Tropicana’s brand presence across China, Hong Kong and Macau as we want to continue to get good support from that region as well as Indonesia, Singapore and Taiwan,” Yau said at a press conference after the group’s AGM yesterday.
Overall, Tropicana has a land-bank of 790.8ha in Kuala Lumpur, Iskandar Malaysia and Penang, which collectively have a potential gross development value of RM70.5bil.
With RM1.3bil of property sales in the bag for the year to date, Tropicana is targeting to achieve new sales of more than RM2bil this year from its planned launches worth RM3bil for the financial year ending Dec 31.
The targeted sales of RM2bil is on top of the RM2bil worth of assets to be divested.
In view of the slower property market, Yau said Tropicana had to be extremely innovative to sustain its pace of growth.
In April, Tropicana declared a four sen single-tier interim dividend.
Yau said the company would maintain at least the financial year 2013 dividends for the year.
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