Australia has become a favourite investment ground for many Malaysian corporations looking to spread their wings in the vast and fast growing Asia-Pacific region.

Supported by a stable economic growth, an increasingly affluent society and a resilient property market in the last 15 years, there are plenty of opportunities to be tapped, especially for property groups.

StarBiz assistant news editor ANGIE NG was in Sydney and Brisbane recently to catch a glimpse of how Malaysian investor Mulpha International Bhd is faring Down Under.

IN pursuing its Australian dreams, Mulpha International Bhd (MIB) aims to be one of the big property players Down Under with plans for more signature developments like Sanctuary Cove's premier integrated residential community enclave in Brisbane and Norwest Business Park in northwest Sydney.

With assets worth A$1.2bil, Mulpha is today Malaysia's largest real estate investor and developer in Australia through its investment arm and wholly-owned subsidiary Mulpha Australia Ltd (MAL).

MAL is reviewing its hotel assets and car park portfolio to consolidate its Australian operation and pare down its A$400mil borrowings, and this will place the group on a stronger financial footing to expand into the real estate and other viable investment opportunities.

MAL owns six hotels – Sheraton Brisbane Hotel, Hyatt Sanctuary Cove Hotel, Novotel Century Sydney Hotel, Intercontinental Hotel Sydney, Melbourne Airport Hotel and Hayman Island Resort. Besides the Sydney Opera House car park, it also operates the Cathedral Street car park.

Alan Zammit explaing development plans in the residential precinct of Northwest Business Park.

The company is in negotiation with two separate parties to sell Sheraton Brisbane for A$100mil and Novotel Century Sydney for more than A$35mil. The Sydney Opera House car park will be sold to Mariner Securities Ltd for A$75mil.

MAL executive chairman Lee Seng Huang said Australia offered strong opportunities for Mulpha to grow into a strong regional investment and real estate group.

“Mulpha is committed to Australia and intends to continue building on its solid foundation to spearhead Malaysian investments into the Australian property market.

“Compared with many countries including Malaysia, the Australian real estate sector is more robust and has more depth with sophisticated financial instruments such as real estate investment trusts (Reits) and other securitisation instruments in place.

“It is the second most developed after the US and that is why, the growth opportunities are tremendous,” added Lee, who is also Mulpha executive chairman.

For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2003, MAL registered a 36% growth in net profit to A$49.5mil but its revenue was lower at A$221mil compared with A$250.7mil in 2002.

MAL's foray into the Australian property development sector was realised with its acquisition of Norwest Ltd for A$72mil in 1998. The prime asset of Norwest is the Norwest Business Park, a freehold mixed development at Baulkham Hills in the northwest of Sydney.

MAL managing director Alan Jones said the value of Norwest Business Park had since appreciated to A$500mil, including the unsold portion that had a net worth of A$350mil.

The world-class business park has designated areas for commercial, industrial and retail development, hotel convention centre, a heritage park, recreational open space and three exclusive residential precincts of over 1,000 dwellings.

Norwest managing director Alan Zammit said with the buoyant residential property market last year, Norwest was able to capitalise on the favourable market conditions and was pursuing various land acquisitions to expand its land bank.

Mulpha, which took over Norwest Business Park five years ago, would be kept busy for another five years there. Of the 366ha earmarked for the development in the mixed-use business park, 120ha are for residential and the rest for industrial, commercial and recreation precincts.

Norwest is the largest business park in Australia with investments worth over A$1bil invested by industrial groups such as IBM, Schneider, Wyeth Australia, Woolworths Ltd and Optus Communications.

According to Jones, Norwest contributed 30% to the MAL group earnings in the last few years, but in the next five years, contribution from Sanctuary Cove would surpass that of Norwest, at about 40%.

In 2002, MAL completed the acquisition of Australia's premier integrated residential resort development known as Sanctuary Cove at a cost of A$208mil.

Located on the northern side of the world famous Gold Coast, the development has been hailed as a world-class lifestyle resort that features waterfront, fairway and hillside homes, two golf courses, a private marina, a marine village as well as recreation and country clubs.

MAL's other investments include the Bimbadgen estate winery and vineyard at Sydney's Hunter Valley, acquired in 1996.