Khazanah to invest RM6.77 billion in local projects

PETALING JAYA: Khazanah Nasional Bhd, whose direct investments overseas amounted to 17.8% of its portfolio realisable asset value (RAV) of RM139 billion as at Aug 31, 2015, yesterday said it has committed to RM 6.77 billion in domestic investments.
In a statement yesterday, Khazanah said it will accelerate and increase domestic investments over the immediate and medium term in several key sectors that include the leisure and tourism, healthcare and health tourism, export-oriented creative industries, innovation and technology and business process outsourcing (BPO) sectors.
It noted that the projects have already been identified, have received or are in advanced stages of receiving the necessary approvals, and are already in various stages of implementation or are ready to be implemented imminently.
This includes the Desaru Coast Destination Resort (DCDR), an integrated leisure and tourism resort in Desaru, Johor, with a development cost of RM4.5 billion between now and 2017 to 2022.
Khazanah has also ear-marked RM50 million in a new tourism venture fund for qualified tourism entrepreneurs in the sub sectors of eco-tourism and cultural/heritage tourism.
IHH Healthcare Bhd, a Khazanah investee company, has also committed capital expenditure of RM670 million up to 2017 for the expansion of existing and greenfield hospitals in Medini, Iskandar; Kuala Lumpur, Klang, Malacca, and Kota Kinabalu. Khazanah estimated that some 3,200 jobs will be created as result of the expansion.
In the wellness space, Khazanah plans to build a Malaysian in-patient rehabilitation hospital business with investments totalling RM100 million over the next two years until 2017, together with a foreign technical operator and equity partner to bring in global best practices.
In Kuala Lumpur, Khazanah will lead a major not-for-profit public private partnership (PPP) project intended to rejuvenate and reactivate Muzium Negara (Dataran Muzium) and separately convert a 66 acre site adjacent to Tugu Negara into a people’s park (Tugu Park).
The project will cost an estimated RM1.1 billion and will be funded mainly by Khazanah (RM730 million), the Federal government (RM220 million) and other government agencies and private sector parties (RM150 million).
“It is estimated that the project will generate potential incremental tourism revenue of RM400-800 million per annum for Kuala Lumpur, and increase visitor and other revenue for Muzium Negara by 10 to 15 times. In addition, the project will consolidate and protect one of the city’s last green lungs,” it said.
The project will be completed in stages with the Tugu Park set to be completed in 2018 and Dataran Muzium in 2020.
In the creative industries, Khazanah’s wholly-owned fund Sonneratia, a RM50 million co-investments fund has been set up to co-finance production of local content for the export markets.
Sonneratia Capital expects to see the release of the films in various regional markets starting from the end of 2015.
In Iskandar Malaysia, Khazanah’s wholly owned unit, i2M Sdn Bhd, will accelerate an investment of RM90 million to attract a targeted RM2.2 billion of additional foreign investment by 2020 in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector. The investments are expected to create 4,000 jobs.
Khazanah said it will also allocate RM115 million for the domestic innovation and technology sector across several initiatives including the creation of physical innovation and accelerator space; startup bootcamps; angel matching co-investments in early-stage companies; and seed-stage venture capital funding for the information technology (IT) and non-IT sectors, respectively.
And lastly, in line with the government’s call to increase the Skim Latihan 1Malaysia (SL1M) programme allocation from 10,000 to 15,000 participants in 2015, Khazanah will more than double its existing commitment from 1,330 to 3,800 participants, at an estimated cost of RM95 million per annum.