By NNN-Bernama,
Kuala Lumpur : Property firm, Golden Plus Holdings Bhd (GPlus), is set to expand its overseas ventures to Vietnam and India by the first quarter of next year where the market is less saturated and there is demand for high-end property.
Its independent non-executive director Jeyaraj Ratnaswamy said the developments in the two countries could be in the form of joint ventures but no direct negotiation has been done with any party.
“The Malaysian market in our view is a bit saturated more at the top end and we have already started a market study in the two countries,” he told reporters after the company’s annual general meeting here today.
“Because of the kind of population you have in India and Vietnam, we think the uptake for this kind of project on the development pitch that we have will be accepted quite favourably,” he added.
At the moment, GPlus is concentrating on its Chinese venture where it has launched its Royal Gardens phase two project, comprising 10 luxury condominium blocks in Shanghai.
Of the six blocks open for sale, 50 percent of it have been sold while two more blocks are expected to be ready for launch in August 2009.
However, its executive director Low Thiam Hoe expects response to property market in Shanghai to slow down next year due to new local government regulations.
Nevertheless, he said, GPlus would go ahead with the development of phase three which includes a 500-room hotel, a shopping mall, an office block and a games centre, and expects it to be ready by 2015.
“This is because we need to complete the project within the stipulated timeframe as agreed with the local council or risk the land being taken away,” he said.
Jeyaraj also said as the company aims to move forward after a recent boardroom tussle, a recent action by Bursa Malaysia, which wants a special audit to be conducted on GPlus, has put a renewed pressure on it.
The tussle began last December when Indian Corridor Sdn Bhd and Pembangunan Qualicare Sdn Bhd, which collectively owned 19.75 percent stake in GPlus, objected to the terms of a management agreement signed between GPlus unit Yanfull Investments Ltd and Hong Kongs China Idea Development Ltd (CIDL).
However, there were signs of the issue being settled when Indian Corridor withdrew its motion from the Court of Appeal for additional provisional liquidators to be appointed.
GPlus, he said, only had the issue of provisional liquidator on hand which would have also been solved by November this year.
A special audit will take another three months, said Jeyaraj.
“(After the boardroom tussle) we had, we thought most of it (issues) had come to an end until Bursa Malaysia suddenly announced that it wants BDO Binder to be appointed as the special auditors,” he said.
The exchange in a statement released last month said under the scope of the audit formulated by Bursa Malaysia, the role of the special auditor is to undertake an in depth review of the financial and business affairs of GPlus for the purpose of ascertaining its compliance with listing requirements.
Jeyaraj said about four audits have already been conducted on GPlus and with the special audit requested by Bursa Malaysia, the total auditing cost of GPlus is expected to balloon to over RM1 million.
He, however, stressed that the company at no point of time was against the special audit as “we have nothing to hide (after four audits but) who is going to bear the cost.”
Bursa Malaysia is also insisting on appointing BDO Binder which is not in line with the Listing Requirement as it can only suggest but not insist.
As for the scope of work of the special auditors seems to be “asking the auditors to go to the company and find a problem,” rather than just auditing purpose, claims Jeyaraj.
GPlus’ counsel Krishnan Kumar claimed the recent action by Bursa Malaysia had triggered a conflict of interest as according to him the lawyers who are advising Bursa Malaysia are the same lawyers who had advised Indian Corridors.
He also claimed Bursa Malaysia’s current actions are similar to that of Indian Corridors especially the special audit.
“The lawyers advising Bursa Malaysia (now) originally advised Indian Corridors. So, it is like as a company we were first fighting with Indian Corridors and now with Bursa Malaysia.”
Asked if that means GPlus will take legal action against Bursa Malaysia, Krishnan said: “I have not made an application to the board (yet). We are now compiling evidence against Bursa Malaysia and we are 70 percent completed.”
However, as the Provisional Liquidator (PL) is still on board, any action to be taken by GPlus must come under the purview of the PL.
“So, the company cannot take action right now. Most probably we have to wait until the PL is removed which means the debt issue is resolved then if the need to take action against Bursa Malaysia still arises at the point of time (we will do so),” he said.
GPlus is already in the process of negotiations with the creditors with regards to its RM50 million debt, said Low.