EWI TO BUY 80PC OF SALCON AUSTRALIA
Group plans to undertake A$218m residential development in Melbourne
ECO World International Bhd (EWI), fresh off its listing success, plans to acquire a 80 per cent stake in Salcon Australia and undertake a residential development in Melbourne.
Salcon Australia owns a 2,128 m2 parcel of prime land in South Yarra, some 5.3km south-east of Melbourne’s central business district.
The proposed Yarra One development comprises a 27-storey tower with 268 residential units, complemented by a retail and office podium with the potential to deliver about A$218.0 million (RM728.3 million) in gross development value (GDV).
Eco World Sydney Development Pty Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of EWI, will be the development manager for the project thus generating a new fee-based income stream for the EWI group.
The acquisition will enable EWI to increase its development pipeline and break into a new target market by extending geographic footprint thus broadening product range to cater to a wider customer base, EWI said in a statement yesterday.
“Yarra One will have all the distinctive hallmarks of an EcoWorld International development — great location, superb connectivity and access to wideranging amenities nearby — to complement the unique selling points we will be incorporating into the project to appeal to our target customer base of local and international purchasers.
“It is indeed a fitting addition to our current portfolio of projects which include London City Island, Embassy Gardens and Wardian London in the United Kingdom and West Village in Parramatta, Sydney,” said EWI president and chief executive officer Datuk Teow Leong Seng .
EWI’s existing four projects involve the development of close to 3,200 units of apartments with a total GDV of RM12.96 billion.
As at January 31, the EWI group recorded sales of RM6.49 billion, approximately 50 per cent of its total GDV.
“Melbourne is a market which we are very familiar with and also a preferred investment destination for many of our Malaysian and regional customers.
“It was crowned the world’s most liveable city for the sixth year running according to the Economist’s Global Liveability Survey,” said Teow.
He said the exercise was consistent with the EWI group’s strategy to seek good opportunities in mature international markets for growth, in line with its ambitions to become a prominent global property player.