PKNS woos foreign investors, Business Times, 20 March 2012

The Selangor State Development Corp (PKNS) will embark on an asset swap deal with foreign property investors and developers to ease its cash flow requirements.

PKNS general manager Othman Omar said the corporation has received offers from the investors from Hong Kong, China and Singapore who are keen to undertake some form of construction within its new developments in exchange for one or two towers.

The business development division of PKNS has announced RM14 billion worth of new projects in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, a bulk of which are urban regeneration and reverse privatisation developments in the Klang Valley. 

In addition to that, PKNS is also talking to foreign private institutions, asset management companies and hotel operators to buy en-bloc some of its properties or lease them long term.

"We want to work with firms like CIMB or Maple Tree for this purpose. We are talking to many parties and hope some deals will materialise this year," Othman told Business Times.

Othman said the investors are interested to buy Grade A office buildings, residences, retail and hotels.

New projects by PKNS' business development division include Datum Jelatik, a RM900 million urban regeneration project in Ampang, Kuala Lumpur, involving four residential towers, offices and a retail complex.


Othman said an international investment firm has offered to buy two of the residential towers at around RM800 per sq ft each.

An artists' impression of Datum In-City PJ

He said PKNS has also received offers from the investors to buy several properties at its RM3 billion Datum In-City@ PJ West project, located nearby Western Digital, starting from RM550 psf.

The project will feature five residential towers, two office buildings, a five-star hotel, a mall and a transportation hub.

Othman said some of its other projects like the RM1.8 billion Datum Sports City project in Kelana Jaya; PJ Sentral Garden City, a joint-venture redevelopment with Nusa Gapurna and the Employees Provident Fund; Datum PJ @ Section 14; and Selangor Science Park 2 in Cyberjaya have also garnered some foreign interest.

He said PKNS will be adding another RM6 billion worth of new projects by the end of this year, in addition to the RM14 billion that was already announced.