Talam Transform likely to remain in the red in near term

KUALA LUMPUR: Loss-making Talam Transform Bhd does not expect a turnaround in the next two years due to the soft property market, but will continue with its business rationalisation and operational management focus to improve its financial performance.

“Most of our problems (have been) resolved, now we’re slowly coming up, we still need one to three years to get it right,” executive director Chua Kim Lan ( pix) told reporters at its AGM here yesterday.

The strategic thrust of the property developer is to leverage on its existing 782 acres of landbank in Selangor, with an estimated gross development value (GDV) of almost RM6 billion. It also plans to go into industrial warehousing and develop retirement homes in Bukit Beruntung.

Talam, which has been in the red since FY15, is emerging from its financial difficulties and wants to build a sustainable business on the strength of its expertise and experience in the affordable homes niche.

Chua said the group’s revenue for the financial year ending Jan 31, 2019 (FY19) will be driven by its construction profit, selling of completed property units, and its RM124 million worth of asset sales pending completion.

“We don’t expect a very big turnover for FY19. Now the property market is quite bad,” she said.

To mitigate the challenging times, Chua said, Talam has construction contracts in hand, in which the group has secured RM127 million of construction contracts to be completed over the next two years, and has embarked on buildand-sell projects.

The property developer has started two build-and-sell projects, the first is 192 units of apartment in Putra Perdana with a GDV of RM35 million, targeting completion by mid June 2019. The second is 100 units of 2 storey superlink house in Ukay Perdana, with a GDV of RM90 million, targeting completion by the third quarter of 2020.

Meanwhile, the group updated that it has extended the agreement with purchaser Jilin Province Zhuo Yue Investment Co Ltd to dispose of its 85% stake in Chinese unit Jilin Province Maxcourt Hotel Ltd for RMB84.66 million (RM55.60 million).

“We’ve extended the agreement, waiting for the buyer to finalise their financing. Certainly we’re disposing of it,” said Chua.

In February, it was announced that the group terminated the agreement with the purchaser due to the failure of the purchaser to obtain approval from Jilin’s Trade and Industry Bureau on the proposed deal.