This is another piece of land of Eco World in Beranang near Eco Majestic (you can see from map not that far). Just call it EcoForest at present. But as reported, the acquisition of this land is still pending completion.

This post has been edited by Jasoncat: Apr 15 2015, 08:44 AM


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Haha... in fact EM had started already, much earlier than people expect and what most developer will do for a big township that just start not long. They just sold 102 units of 2-storey shoplots in early this year

Agreed

Kenanga: Rising Eco World a ‘must-have’ stock

Fast-emerging property developer Eco World Development Group Bhd may rise to the top of the industry food chain over the next two years, says Kenanga Research today, tipping the counter as a “must-have” stock.

In a report today, the research house noted the developer’s resilience against market-wide slowdown with its recent property launches seeing take-up rates between 80% and 100% compared to industry average of 50% to 60%.

“We like the stock as a long-term value emerging stock given their aggressive growth path and management team,” said Kenanga. “Expect Eco World to be a ‘must-have’ stock as we will not be surprised if it becomes a market leader over the next two years.”

Among others the research house tipped the management profile of Eco World, with strong experience in quality township planning, as a big draw among the property-buying crowd.

At present Eco World’s remaining gross development value (GDV) comes to an estimated RM51.2 billion, of which 83.5% are either mixed developments or townships, according to Kenanga. The rest are industrial business parks.

In terms of key personnel, former SP Setia chief of nearly 18 years Liew Kee Sin was re-designated board chairman in March. Another addition to the board was Liew’s long-time associate Voon Tin Yow – Liew’s former chief executive officer at SP Setia for the duration of the former’s stay — as executive director.

Other prominent names in Eco World’s senior management lineup include industry veterans with former links to SP Setia as well, among others chief executive officer Chang Khim Wah and chief financial officer Heah Kok Boon.

“We expect such profiling to translate into strong branding and demand for Eco World’s projects as property buyers these days are savvy and do their ‘research’ before making a purchase,” said Kenanga. “Thus, we believe Eco World will be gaining market share as buyers are aware that by buying Eco World products, project quality and delivery will be equally top-notch as Eco World is aiming to establish a branding strength with market leadership qualities.”

‘Liew reinstated as head’

In addition the redesignation of Liew as non-executive chairman from his previous non-executive directorship is crucial for Eco World, added the research house, as Liew is proposing a property-focused special purpose acquisition company (Spac) also bearing the Eco World brand.

“The new position officially re-instates Liew’s role as a mentor, and head of the company, and he will also head the management team for the Spac,” said Kenanga.

“This is crucial for the group, especially since Eco World has plans to acquire 30% of the Spac. The Spac will expand its wings to the United Kingdom and Australia.”

To recap, in October 2014 Eco World announced its intention to subscribe to Liew’s proposed Spac, named Eco World International, to the tune of 30% equity for some RM562.5 million. This means the Spac is eyeing as much as RM1.9 billion in capital raised through its proposed listing.

However a Business Times report in March this year quoted Liew as saying that the Spac will not be a blank-cheque initial public offering (IPO), rather listing with assets in hand. “We are awaiting the outcome of the IPO application to the Securities Commission.”

“We will add more international projects to Eco World International as we move forward and the focus will still be in London and Australia,” said Liew as quoted by the paper.

This is seen as an allusion to Liew’s personal joint venture with Irish developer Ballymore announced in January this year, worth some RM11.8 billion in estimated gross development value (GDV) through his personal vehicle Eco World Investment, to develop three residential property projects in London.

Liew had previously said the joint venture may be injected into the Spac, which is eyeing a listing in the third quarter of this year. However the draft prospectus is not yet available on the Securities Commission’s website at publication time.

‘Phenomenal Sales'

Eco World’s strong take-up rates came despite most of its property launches residing firmly outside the affordable price range, noted Kenanga today.

The research house noted the company’s recent launches such as Eco Majestic, Eco Botanic, Eco Spring and Eco Business Park I had recorded “phenomenal sales”, achieving strong take-up within days of launching.

While most of Eco World properties are priced above RM500,000 per unit, those that come under the RM1 million per unit mark are seeing take-up rates of over 97%, said Kenanga.

As for properties priced above the RM1 million per unit threshold, the developer is seeing take-up rates from 80% to full take-up within one to two days of launching, added Kenanga.

“This suggests that Eco World is hitting all the right notes with buyers in terms of pricing, product positioning as well as branding as take-up rates remain strong despite most units being priced outside the affordable range,” said Kenanga.

Taking Johor by storm

Kenanga took special note of Eco World’s strong inroads into the Johor property market in 2014 despite softening market conditions, which led to lower sales for other developers.

In its report today, Kenanga said most developers under its coverage only managed full-year sales of between RM220 million and RM605 million in 2014. By contrast Eco World’s full-year sales in the state clocked in at RM1.8 billion in 2014, making up 57% of the developer’s total sales figure.

“Property data showed that the higher absorption rates in the 3Q14 (at 11, below 10-yr average of 12) for Johor’s residential property also ties in with the timing of Eco World’s sales progress in Johor which jumped by RM1.2 billion from March 2014 to October 2014,” said Kenanga today.

“However, 4Q14 saw lower absorption rates on the back of lower sales and higher incoming supply, while there were minimal new launches from Eco World (in that quarter),” added Kenanga.

The developer’s success in Johor despite the lull period is likely due to its right positioning and pricing, opined Kenanga, noting among others that Eco World’s projects in Johor are seeing in excess of 80% in take-up rates.

“As such, we believe Eco World may already be starting to steal market share from other developers in that region and has clearly demonstrated marketing abilities which set themselves apart from other developers,” said Kenanga further.


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Yeah I think the low cost quota to be met at some other dev is possible. Like EcoSanctuary, the affordable housing will be built on Tropicana Aman land instead (though both share the costs).

Really like abang adik - even the office phone number of SEH and EM only diff by 1 digit

32 for internal / associates which to me as good as sold off (though I didn't ask further on that).

This post has been edited by Jasoncat: Apr 15 2015, 10:43 PM

Price ranges from RM1388k to RM2739k. Only 102 units with 32 offered to existing purchasers. As the number of units are very limited that's why not publicly advertised.

Call them also no use. Sure no more as I missed the boat and then asked them few times to confirm any drop out unit...

Samkor, Base Rate is comprised of benchmark cosf of fund + SRR. Most banks (if I remember correctly, up to 90%) use 3M KLIBOR as the benchmark COF. So irrespective of the actual COF whether high or low, since it is to be based on the benchmark COF, it doesn't mean that bank with lower actual COF will have lower BR.

On the part of the spread, it will be maintained throughout the loan tenure unless - so fat hope for better spread

Samkor, theoretically all the banks that use KLIBOR are supposed to have the same BR. I believe the difference could be due to the timing they captured the data and submitted to Bank Negara last year. Also it is possible that the difference in the way they do the computation resulted in different BR. That explains why the BR of most banks are quite close as you can see here
The BR could have changed now as the banks are only required (by Bank Negara) to keep the BR unchanged for the first 3 months.

BR = 3M KLIBOR + SRR, so the variation of BR relies on both KLIBOR and SRR (not just only on SRR).

I personally think that EW will buck against the trend and be one of the top developers (if not the only one) with strong sales this year. Went to IProperty expo today (Friday) - they are still very confident of good sales performance.

Samkor, impressed prof really pro
Oh yeah, I missed out MBB which I believe it uses blended COF (the actual COF) instead of KLIBOR as its reference. So its BR rate is supposed to be closer to FD/CASA. Theoretically, banks like MBB that uses blended COF may see relatively less volatility in their BR as its liability components which comprises FD will be repriced slower. This implies 2 things - if OPR hikes, then its BR will adjust up slower / smaller and vice versa. Nevertheless, since I / we do not have the privy access to their BR computation methodology, I presume the BR adjustment is elastic and timely to reflect the change in some key reference rate, eg OPR which will have widespread effect to all the funding cost.

For banks that have effective cost control this will give them more room to play around with their spread and remain competitive in the market.

As for your presumption stated in the 2nd part of your note, in terms of quantum different banks will have different amount of statutory funds to be kept but same rate 4% applied across all banks. Naturally banks with higher eligible liability will have higher funds to be reserved for that regulatory purpose. But again, how significant is the weightage of it in BR calculatotion will depend on the methodology used by each banks.

This post has been edited by Jasoncat: Apr 18 2015, 10:53 AM

Lol. Based on Samkor initiative and spirit of finding the truth, it is hard not to believe that Samkor is in educational line (prof)

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Lol with that price a lot of places can be considered but it's matter of personal preference and how they assess their investment decision.

What sort of advice you need? If you are worried about loan approval, have you done a self-assessment on your DSR and actual repayment capacity? If not, have you talked to any bankers yet?

RM11.14B for a 10 to 11-year project but expected to complete much earlier based on the current progress.

Yes considered resolved amicably.

Congrats in advance
Since you have already decided to do a booking this week, I trust that you have done the necessary study on the project, the surrounding environment and the developer - so, needless to talk much about these aspects. If you are going to take loan, I suggest that you get ready the required documents in few sets so that you can straight away submit the same to the bankers on duty at the sales gallery for your loan application. Talk to the bankers what are the features and the possible best rate of the loan they can offer, if you are ok with it only then submit the docs to proceed with your applications so that you don't need to waste the docs. Suggest to try at least 4 banks to widen your options.