Rowsley

Rowsley: Rowsley’s Vantage Bay development in Iskandar will be a 9.23ha integrated complex with apartments, a mega mall, offices and a hotel, situated just 1km away from the causeway. Rowsley plans to launch the first phase of its residential units by early 2014. The no. of units to be launched was not revealed, but mgt said that overall, Vantage Bay should have more than 3,000 homes. Prices were also not available, but mgt said that on a “like-for-life” basis, prices in the area have surpassed the RM1,000 ($391) psf mark “quite significantly”. Mgt highlighted how market cap has increased from $140m to $1.5b in less than a year, with its transformation into a property player. The newly acquired RSP Architect’s strong project pipeline plus Rowsley’s new land bank in Iskandar will help contribute to bottom line, whilst providing the synergy and scale to put Rowsley on track as a premium, quality developer. Rowsley is debt free, and progress payment from sale of units are expected to fund the Iskandar development. A dampener is the possibility of a new 4-5% property price tax that the govt is mulling over. Nevertheless, mgt sees this as a clear sign of demand which is “hot enough for the government to want to do something”. Rowsley recently completed a 2-for-1 bonus warrant issue. The warrants start trading tmrw, 11 Oct.