1ST LISTING OF THE YEAR: IOI Properties Group Bhd closed its 1st day of trading at 64 sen (25%), up at RM3.15, overtaking UEM Sunrise Bhd as the biggest market capitalised property counter valued at RM10.2b compared to RM10.16b for UEM which closed yesterday's trading at RM2.24. (From left) Shareholder Puan Sri Hoong May Kuan, IOI Properties Group Bhd director Dr Tan Kim Heung, executive chairman Tan Sri Lee Shin Cheng, director Datuk Tan Kim Leong, CEO Lee Yeow Seng and director Datuk Richard Lee Say Tshin during the IOI Properties Group listing ceremony at Bursa Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

IOI Properties Group Bhd closed its first day of trading at 64 sen (25%), up at RM3.15, overtaking UEM Sunrise Bhd as the biggest market capitalised property counter valued at RM10.2 billion compared to RM10.16 billion for UEM which closed yesterday's trading at RM2.24.

The first Bursa listing of the year saw the property company debuted on the Main Board at RM3.21, representing a 70 sen premium over its reference price of RM2.51 with 671,500 shares.

IOI Properties saw the price swing from a low of RM3.01 to a high of RM3.56 in early trading, settled the day as the fifth most traded company with 66.1 million shares traded.

"I'm quite happy with the opening price," IOI Group founder Tan Sri Lee Shin Cheng told the media yesterday.

Shin Cheng said that being the largest capitalised propert y company is not as important as maintaining growth and sustainability for the future.

The company which was spun out of Shin Cheng's plantation firm IOI Corp Bhd via an in-specie distribution where asset itself is distributed and a restricted sale offer of 1.065 billion shares to shareholders of IOI Corp which will raise about RM1.875 billion.

The company did not commit to a dividend policy but expects property sales to hit RM2.5 bilion to RM3 billion annually for financial year 2014 (FY14) and FY15 and record operating profit level of above RM1 billion annually.

Its revenue for FY13 amounted to RM1.3 billion with net profit of RM714 million.

Capex wise for 2014, IOI Properties intends to spend about S$1.8 billion (RM4.65 billion) for its project in Singapore, 500 million yuan (RM271.75 million) for phase 2 project in Xiamen, China, and RM800 million to launch projects in Bangi and Puchong in Selangor, as well as Johor.

Over the next three years it plans to launch projects with a gross development value (GDV) of RM10 billion in Malaysia, S$3 billion in Singapore and five billion yuan in China on its landbank of 10,000 acres (4,047ha).

The company released its firstquarter ended Sept 30, 2013 results last week where revenue was RM325.9 million, net profit was RM112.45 million and earnings per share was 3.47 sen.

The net profit was 34.5% of revenue while its gross profit of RM166.54 million was 51.1% of revenue.



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