PETALING JAYA: I-Bhd, the master developer of i-City Golden Triangle, is seeing signs of renewed optimism, where rebound is evident in all its major developments.
The group is set to stride forward with confidence as the rebound in its business activities gathers momentum.
Mall traffic is back at 2019 levels of 90% at Central i-City shopping mall, which is a joint venture between Thailand’s largest retail property developer Central Pattana group, and i-City.
Following the transition to endemicity, the leisure theme park has returned to profitability, and seen a return to its pre-pandemic foot traffic.
The i-City Convention Centre is experiencing good take-up, especially on pent-up demand, as events and activities could not be held over the last two years.
At Best Western i-City, occupancy is currently at 65%, while bookings for ballrooms and function rooms at the upcoming 300-room DoubleTree by Hilton have been taken up in the first two weeks of the hotel opening, slated for August 2022.
The 52-storey BeCentral offering luxury homes and targeted to be launched in Q3 2022, has already received encouraging bookings while Mercu Maybank, the 33-storey Grade-A Smart Corporate Office Tower at the Finance Avenue in i-City is 82% tenanted with strong pipeline.
“We can hit the road running and would be able to see the signs of improvement within this year itself,“ said I-Bhd chairman Tan Sri Lim Kim Hong in a statement after its AGM and EGM today.
At the EGM, shareholders approved the extension of the RM201 million RCULs for another five years. The extension will provide the funding for I-Bhd to pursue its plan to be a billion ringgit market capitalisation company.
The plan, which was shared with the shareholders, involved a four-pronged approach. Apart from rebuilding its property development pipeline to deliver RM300 million of annual revenue, the group would also improve the yield of its RM1.0 billion investment property portfolio. There will also be substantial investments in digital technology to maintain i-City as the No 1 Technology City and provide a Metaverse experience for the theme park.
For the first quarter of 2022, I-Bhd registered a net profit of RM1.44 million, compared with a net loss of RM4.54 million a year ago.