Tradewinds advances on tower plan

Tradewinds Corp, a Malaysian hotel, building and plantations group, rose to a one-week high in Kuala Lumpur trading after a newspaper reported it will spend RM450 million refurbishing a Kuala Lumpur office building and construct a new 40-floor tower.

The company, controlled by billionaire Syed Mokhtar Al- Bukhary, will refurbish an existing building called Menara Tun Razak in Malaysia’s capital and construct a neighboring office tower, Tradewinds Director Poh Pai Kong said in a telephone interview today.

“This is truly the appetizer,” he said. “We’ve got a main course that’s almost ready to unveil,” said Poh, referring to a later project.

Malaysian developers have stepped up building plans to tap rising demand amid an economic recovery. Southeast Asia’s third- largest economy has emerged from its first recession in a decade and may expand by between 4.5 per cent and 5.5 per cent this year, Bank Negara Malaysia said in its annual report on March 24.
Tradewinds rose 3.6 per cent to 58 sen in Kuala Lumpur trading at 10:48 a.m. local time, set for its steepest gain since June 21.

The new office tower will have a net rentable area of 440,000 square feet, compared with the Menara Tun Razak’s 296,000 square feet, said Poh.

Property currently contributes around 6 per cent of Tradewinds revenue, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. This is likely to overtake hotels as the group’s biggest earner in future years, said Poh.

Tradewinds owns nine hotels in Malaysia, including the Crowne Plaza Mutiara Kuala Lumpur, Hilton Petaling Jaya and Hotel Istana. About 66 percent of its revenue was derived from the division in 2009, Bloomberg data shows. -- Bloomberg