This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on December 2, 2024 - December 8, 2024
A white knight has emerged to take over the development of the stalled Penang World City (PWC) in Bayan Baru, Penang.
The white knight, who is a developer, is said to be in the midst of restructuring Hemat Tuah Sdn Bhd, in which the brother of MBI’s Tedy Teow and associates close to the latter held majority stakes. The infamous MBI collapsed in 2018, leaving investors in the lurch, and Teow was extradited to China from Thailand in August this year.
Sources tell The Edge that the developer is finalising its plans for PWC, with a launch slated for next year. The RM10 billion project involves both existing land and land to be reclaimed, and stretches over 102 acres.
“It would be good to see the development of PWC coming up, especially the reclamation portion, since it was announced years ago. The location is good, with it being close to the Penang Bridge and Queensbay Mall.
“It will also elevate the surrounding developments. The areas closer to Queensbay Mall are also pretty vibrant with projects such as Ideal Property’s Queensbay Residences Q1 and Queensbay Residences Q2, as well as other upcoming projects in the vicinity,” a local agent, who declined to be named, tells The Edge.
The reclamation part of PWC has seen several delays since it was first unveiled in November 2011. However, last month, The Edge reported that some activity was seen on site, including at the sales gallery.
On the project signboard, China Communications Construction Company is listed as the contractor and Mutiara Metropolis Sdn Bhd as the developer.
Mutiara Metropolis, formerly Tropicana Ivory Sdn Bhd, is wholly-owned by Hemat Tuah. It is understood that Mutiara Metropolis has an upcoming launch of 326 serviced apartments and 20 commercial shop offices on a piece of land situated across from the reclamation site.
Initially, PWC was to be developed by the then newly listed Ivory Properties Group Bhd (KL:IVORY) and Tropicana Corp Bhd (KL:TROP) (then known as Dijaya Corp) via joint venture Tropicana Ivory Sdn Bhd. The project encompassed about 102.56 acres, including reclamation land.
Ivory landed the project in 2011 after putting in the best bid in a tender run by the Penang Development Corporation.
This project would have made Ivory, now a PN17 company, the largest developer on the island. The first phase of PWC, Tropicana Bay Residences, was previewed in 2013. Tropicana Ivory also sold three parcels within PWC to Asia Green Group.
Due to technical issues, the reclamation works were expected to commence only in mid-2017. The works, which were initially supposed to take three to five years to complete, had an estimated cost of around RM200 million.
Subsequently, both Tropicana and Ivory exited PWC separately. Tropicana sold its 55% stake in Tropicana Ivory to Hemat Tuah for RM70.7 million and a year later, in October 2018, Ivory sold its 45% stake in Tropicana Ivory for RM56 million, also to Hemat Tuah.
At the time, MBI, which ran a pyramid scheme that attracted investors from as far as China, was the biggest buyer of property-related assets in Penang. In 2018, Teow and his son were charged and fined for money laundering. Subsequently, MBI’s activities in Penang died down.
Teow, however, continued to remain active in Dannok, Thailand, until his arrest and extradition to China this August.
Since 2019, development at PWC had been slow and the reclamation works had ground to a halt until recently.
Asia Green Group has since completed two projects — QuayWest Residence and The Zen/Zen 6 — and has plans to launch The Pier, comprising 934 serviced apartments and 64 two-storey commercial shop offices.
A company search of Hemat Tuah on Nov 26 still showed the same top five shareholders as reported previously — Koh Teck Ong, Lim Ah Chay, Lio Chee Yeong, Tan Kim Hee and Teow Wooi Pin.
Teow Wooi Pin, said to be a brother of Tedy Teow, has a 45% stake in Hemat Tuah while Tan Kim Hee, said to be Tedy Teow’s brother-in-law, has a 15% stake in the company.
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