Eco World International acquires prime site in Sydney to develop A$139m project

PETALING JAYA: Eco World International Bhd (EWI) has entered into a call and put option agreement with the owners of 25 apartment units located at Macquarie Park, Sydney to acquire these units by way of a collective sale.
In a statement today, the developer said it plans to develop an A$139 million (RM435 million) gross development value (GDV) project on the prime development land, which situated 12 kilometres northwest of Sydney's central business district.
EWI said this represents approximately 84.2% of the strata scheme, which enables the group to proceed with the acquisition of all the 30 apartment units through a strata renewal process under the Act.
It said the estimated purchase price to acquire the entire site is approximately A$40 million (RM125 million) and the proposed acquisition is expected to be completed by November 2018.
EWI said it plans to develop 125 units of residential apartments with a small component of retail, which is targeted to be launched in the first half of 2019 and completed over three to four years from the date of launch.
Funding for the proposed acquisition is expected to come from a combination of the proceeds of the group's recent initial public offering (IPO) and bank borrowings/ other debt instruments, it added.
"We are delighted to be able to add the Macquarie Park site, which is situated in a fast-growing location extremely popular with Sydney-siders, to our growing project portfolio in Australia," EWI's president and CEO Datuk Teow Leong Seng said.
"Our decision to focus on serving the needs of the domestic property market began with the acquisition of the Yarra One site in South Yarra, Melbourne," he added.
Teow said the group's proposed acquisition was followed by its recent entry into the heads of agreement with Willmott Dixon to potentially acquire 12 projects in the UK.
"The announcement today is therefore in line with our overall strategy to localise our brand wherever we operate," he said.
Under the Strata Schemes Development Act 2015 (Australia), 75% of unit owners in a strata scheme can agree to end their strata scheme, so the site can be redeveloped or sold.
At 3.30pm, EWI shares fell 1 sen or 0.9% to RM1.06 on some 530,300 shares changing hands.