LISTED Malaysian property developer TA Global expects to launch a $600 million joint-venture residential development, Little Bay Cove, in Sydney's eastern suburbs, this month.
The project is TA Global's first foray into residential development in Australia.
The 50:50 venture is through Charter Hall Group's unlisted Charter Hall Opportunity Fund No 5.
TA Global executive director Kimmy Khoo said in Kuala Lumpur that the first sod was turned on the project in July.
The company expected its initial release of 30 townhouses and 40 apartments "this or next month".
Ms Khoo said her company shared development management of the two-stage project with Charter Hall.
"It is an alliance in which we each bring our expertise to the table," she said. "We hope to add value through our own experience in residential development in Malaysia.
She said some features of Damansara Idaman, an upmarket gated residential development in the Malaysian capital, would provide useful reference for Little Bay Cove."We see ourselves as a high-end developer and our products offering a lifestyle, not just a home."
Damansara Idaman, a large four-stage project, is adjacent to a country club in the sought-after suburb of Damansara.
It is one of several residential projects under development in Malaysia. "We won't be building cookie-cutter houses at Little Bay Cove. We are looking at individual designs for the homes," Ms Khoo said.
The project will include a mix of houses, townhouses and apartments, 500 in total, to be built over more than four years.
"We continue to look for opportunities in Australia," Ms Khoo said, adding that she had been offered many assets.
But she said: "We are very focused on what we buy.
"We have stringent investment guidelines, such as our hotels have to be corporate hotels or in resort areas."
She said TA Global arrived in Australia in 1997, when it acquired the Radisson Hotel in O'Connell Street, Sydney, from Westpac Bank.
It has recently renovated the hotel and lifted its historic dome to add two floors.
"We changed the name to Radisson BLU to reflect its upgrade to a luxury five-star international hotel," she said.
TA Global acquired the Westin Melbourne, again a corporate hotel in the central business district, for $160m in December 2008.
It has been buying hotels in quick succession in the past two years, building up a modest portfolio of five, valued at 2 billion ringgits ($646.5m).
It paid $S260m ($208m) for Swissotel Merchant Court in Singapore in 2009 and this year bought Swissotel Kunshan in China for $US60.7m ($63.5m).
It also owns Aava Whistler, a four-star hotel in Canada's snow country, bought in 2008.
These purchases prompted market speculation that TA Global was planning to launch an international hotel real estate investment trust.
Ms Khoo, the sister-in-law of TA group founder Tiah Thee Kian, declined to comment on these reports, except to say: "Our hotel operation is profitable."
But industry sources said TA Global had ambitions to list a REIT. "The only way to monetise its hotel assets is to list," a source said.
TA Global was part of TA Enterprise Berhad, founded in 1990 and one of Malaysia's largest brokerage firms, which ran two primary streams of businesses: financial services and property investment-development.
In 2009, TA Global was spun off, and listed on the Malaysian Stock Exchange (Bursa Malaysia) in November that year.
Ms Khoo said TA Global, 74 per cent-owned by TA Enterprise, was the vehicle for the group's property development, asset management and landbank, and to diversify its businesses overseas.
It is one of the most active mid-tier property groups, with a list of residential and commercial projects in Malaysia.
Ms Khoo said the apartment market in central Kuala Lumpur was softening and the company was looking at the suburbs and commercial and mixed-use projects. One of its largest will be a 50-storey twin-tower mixed-used development in the "Golden Triangle" at the heart of Kuala Lumpur's CBD.
The 1.4 billion ringgit project will be on the prime site, where Menara TA One, its corporate offices, are located, near the landmark Petronas Towers.
Its only offshore commercial investment is Fortis BC Centre, in Vancouver, Canada.
Source:http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/property/ta-global-moves-into-luxury-housing/story-fn9656lz-1226159552697
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