This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on June 17, 2024 - June 23, 2024

S P Setia Bhd (KL:SPSETIA) has finally found a buyer for a tract of land, measuring 959.7 acres, in Tebrau.

Senibong Island Sdn Bhd (SISB), a company linked to Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary, is paying RM564 million in cash for the tract.

Sigma Senibina, a wholly-owned subsidiary of his vehicle Kelana Venture Sdn Bhd, holds a 49% stake in SISB. The remaining 51% stake is held by WM Senibong Sdn Bhd, in which Sigma Senibina also owns 37.8% equity interest.

Notably, Walker Asia Development Sdn Bhd, a unit of Aussie-based Walker Corp Pty Ltd, is also a shareholder of the buyer, SISB.

Based on filings with the Companies Commission of Malaysia, Walker Asia holds an effective stake of roughly 43.12% in SISB. In other words, the Aussie developer will jointly own the parcel with Syed Mokhtar.

Walker Corp’s CEO and managing director David Gallant and director Bruce Hancox are board members of WM Senibong, the 51% shareholder of SISB.

Walker Corp is not new to Johor. The Aussie company has a luxury waterfront residential development called Senibong Cove at the southeastern tip of Johor, facing Sembawang in Singapore.

As corporate Malaysia knows, SISB is not the first party to show interest in this particular piece of land.

S P Setia had previously wanted to sell the parcel to Scientex Bhd (KL:SCIENTX), which intended to build affordable homes on the land.

The deal, however, was rejected twice by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) because the buyer did not fulfil the bumiputera shareholding requirement.

In the second attempt, the deal was structured such that the land would be sold to a joint venture, Scientex Lestari Sdn Bhd, in which Scientex owns a 70% stake and Datuk Azman Mahmud the remaining 30%.

Even then, the deal was rejected by the EPU.

In fact, the S P Setia tract is not the only land owned by a government-linked institution that Scientex has shown interest in.

The company announced a land transaction with Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) last July, the same month it revealed the proposed land deal with S P Setia. The PNB parcel was to be sold to Scientex Lestari.

In December, Scientex Lestari obtained all the necessary approvals to acquire 550.67 acres of land in Kulai from PNB for RM299.84 million cash.

Approvals appear to be very arbitrary. Scientex and corporate Malaysia deserve to know why and how the EPU concluded that Syed Mokhtar and his Aussie partner are more suitable owners for the S P Setia land in Tebrau than Scientex Lestari.

Perhaps low-income households in southern Johor would like to find out if Syed Mokhtar and Walker Corp are planning to venture into affordable housing, in addition to luxury waterfront residences?

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