PUBLISHED APRIL 22, 2014
Sembcorp revives property unit
It will develop homes in group's industrial parks
BYLEE MEIXIAN
[email protected] @LeeMeixianBT
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BT 20140422 LMXSEMBPROP 1054412
Mr Teo: Nanjing and Chengdu in China will be company's first focus
[SINGAPORE] Sembcorp Industries is reactivating Sembcorp Properties, a dormant subsidiary which developed condominiums in Singapore a decade ago, with a new strategy - to develop residential and commercial properties in its existing industrial parks, starting with China.
This is in tandem with its ramped-up efforts to build up urban development as a third pillar of the company, next to its mainstay utilities and marine operations.
In a recent interview, Sembcorp Development CEO Kelvin Teo told The Business Times that he aims to have the group's urban development segment generate a three-digit net profit by 2020, up from the $50 million, or 6 per cent of the group's overall earnings, that it contributed in FY13.
Over the past two decades, Sembcorp Development has been involved in master planning, land preparation and infrastructure development to transform raw land into large-scale urban developments overseas. For the most part, it has been developing industrial parks and now has 11 projects in China, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Describing the strategy shift, Mr Teo said: "Typically in the past, what we did in our land master planning was to sell land to third party (residential and commercial) property developers. Now we twist our business model and ask if we can do it ourselves. This is why we reactivated the subsidiary - to do property."
With the revival of the unit, Sembcorp Properties will become a subsidiary of Sembcorp Development.
Sembcorp Properties became dormant after the 1998 merger between Sembawang Corp and Singapore Technologies Industrial Corp (STIC) which resulted in the present-day Sembcorp. At the time, Sembcorp identified engineering and technology as its competitive advantage and exited many of its other non-core areas. Property development was one of them.
Mr Teo said the company is pursuing property development for several reasons: firstly, as a "catalyst project" to drive new projects it embarks on and convince other project participants to come onboard; and secondly, to set a quality standard for others within its own township settlement.
Of course, this would also address the housing requirements of employees working in those industrial or business parks.
Sembcorp will begin with building mid- to high-end residential developments in the Singapore-Sichuan Hi-tech Innovation Park in Chengdu, Sichuan province, and the Sino-Singapore Nanjing Eco Hi-tech Island in Jiangxinzhou, Jiangsu province.
"China will be our first priority. We see a strong demand for houses in Nanjing and Chengdu; they have reached a very mature stage for housing needs. We have been tracking their monthly housing price trend and market absorption rates. These two cities have moderate growth, so we thought these will be our first focus," Mr Teo said.
"We have no time-frame for when we are building the first development, but it won't be too far off."
Employees at Nanjing, which aims to become a centre for high-tech innovation, are of the "high disposal income type", while those in the Sichuan innovation park tend to be researchers, scientists and bankers, he said.
Both Chinese projects are "strongly endorsed" by the Singapore government and have helped to create employment for many Chinese graduates, attract foreign direct investment to China and improve the Sino-Singapore bilateral relationship.
Mr Teo added that any commercial developments that follow will be amenities to support the residential developments.
Meanwhile, Sembcorp is not ruling out tying up with other developers, local or foreign, for their development strengths or unique capabilities.
While Sembcorp has the advantage of being able to acquire land at lower prices, through negotiations rather than bidding, developers still command a better premium, given their track record and expertise. Besides, land cost is only a small fraction of development costs in China, unlike in Singapore.
To be sure, Sembcorp Development already has existing residential projects in the Wuxi-Singapore Industrial Park, a joint venture with the Wuxi government which Sembcorp has a 45.4 per cent stake in. To attract people to work at the business and IT park there, two residential blocks and a 120-room serviced apartment block operated by Fraser Hospitality have been added.
Ultimately, the urban development pillar is not standalone but enjoys synergy with the group's power and water management capabilities.
"We can offer the total holistic solution to our customers. As a group, we can do it all under one roof, unlike competitors who outsource these services to others and cannot control the services," Mr Teo said.