MULPHA International Bhd will continue to seek strategic acquisitions, said executive chairman Lee Seng Huang.
“We have always been looking for opportunities but good deals with good prices are hard to come by these days; nevertheless, we will continue to look out for opportunities when the deal is right and aligned with the group’s strategic direction,” Lee told StarBiz in an interview.
Mulpha International was among the companies that were considering bidding for Australia’s Centro Properties Group earlier this year. Centro Properties, one of Australia’s biggest casualties of the global credit crunch, owns 700 shopping malls in the US.
Lee said Mulpha International did consider bidding for Centro Properties initially but decided not to proceed with it. However, he did not to disclose details.
Last November, Mulpha International acquired a “sizeable” coalmine in China through its subsidiary Greenfield Chemical Holdings Ltd. Greenfield is involved in the manufacture and sale of industrial paints in Hong Kong and China.
“This is a strategic diversification to increase our competitiveness and focus on the natural resources industry,” Lee said, adding that the acquisition was expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year.
Mulpha International, which has interests in businesses ranging from hotels to property development and financial services, has businesses in Hong Kong, Vietnam, Australia and China. The group’s overseas operations contribute about 70% to the group’s profit.
Mulpha International is the largest Malaysian real estate investor and developer in Australia.
The group owns a number of assets in Australia, including the InterContinental Hotel in Sydney, Hilton Melbourne Airport Hotel, Hayman Island Resort and Hyatt Regency Sanctuary Cove in Queensland.
On the local front, Lee said the group had embarked on three new high-end developments – bungalows on 2.5 acres in Bukit Tunku and 1.5 acres in Bangsar, and Grade A office-tower in Jalan Sultan Ismail designed by the world-renowned New York architecture firm Kohn Pederson Fox.
“All these projects are expected to be launched in the third quarter of this year,” he said.
Apart from acquiring businesses, Mulpha International is also scouting for pieces of land that are of good size, price and location to build its brand momentum in the local property industry.
The group is also seeking development opportunities in countries where it already has a presence and in other markets such as Singapore.
To a question, Lee said the group had no plans to set up a real estate investment trust at present; it would only do so when it had more high yielding assets.
“The priorities for the group for this year are to further strengthen our assets base, achieve good profit and launch the new projects,” he said, adding that the group planned to spend about RM170mil in capital expenditure this year.
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