KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 3): Sime Darby Property Bhd (KL:SIMEPROP) is no longer a traditional property developer. Five years after embarking on the group’s SHIFT25 strategy, Sime Darby Property has emerged with a broader business than the one that entered the transformation programme in 2021.

Property development remains its main earnings engine, but alongside it now sits a growing portfolio of recurring income-producing industrial, logistics, retail and data centre assets, as well as a fund-management business.

As it stands, Sime Darby Property has secured about RM7.6 billion in lease value from two build-to-suit hyperscale data centres at Elmina Business Park under 20-year leases, with the first facility already contributing recurring rental income from the second quarter, which more than doubled from the same period last year.

With the conclusion of SHIFT25 at the end of 2025, the group was confident enough to raise its dividend payout policy to 40%-60% of consolidated profit after tax and minority interest, from not less than 20% previously, albeit, notably, being known to dish out dividend payouts of at least 40% in recent years.

SHIFT25 had done its work to transform Sime Darby Property into a broader real estate company, while its successor, SHIFT32, runs to 2032 with the aim to heighten the group’s stable of recurring income streams and scale up its assets under management through strategic investments and venture funds.

For group managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Azmir Merican, who comes from a background in private equity and had previously orchestrated the merger and acquisition of five companies under UEM Edgenta Bhd, which he subsequently led as its MD/CEO, the logic is that “land is finite”.

Since the 2017 demerger of the old Sime Darby group separated the property and plantation businesses, Sime Darby Property no longer has the luxury of receiving a continuing stream of plantation land from the bigger Sime Darby group to convert into townships.

While property development remains Sime Darby Property's main earnings engine, alongside it now sits a growing portfolio of recurring income-producing industrial, logistics, retail and data centre assets. The group has so far set up two private, institution-backed real estate development funds — the Industrial Development Fund in 2021 and the New Economy Venture in June this year — to raise capital for new assets while regarding REITs as the ultimate goal for monetising those assets. Setting up investment funds to pool capital from third parties allows Sime Darby Property to scale up without stretching its balance sheet. 

Find out more in Cover Story 1 in this week's issue of The Edge Malaysia. 

In Cover Story 2, we take a look at developments at Zetrix AI Bhd (KL:ZETRIX).  

In September 2022, CGS International Securities Sdn Bhd (then CGS-CIMB) granted a RM60 million margin trading account facility to Wong Thean Soon, co-founder and largest shareholder of MyEG Services Bhd, now known as Zetrix AI. The facility came with a price cap on Zetrix AI’s shares of “80% of the preceding day’s closing price or ceiling price of 80 sen, whichever is lower”.

Similarly, his private vehicle Asia Internet Holdings Sdn Bhd had a price cap of 60% of Zetrix AI’s preceding day’s closing price or ceiling price of 70 sen, whichever was lower, for a RM30 million margin financing facility signed in August 2019.

These details were disclosed in court documents relating to a suit between Wong, Asia Internet Holdings and CGS International. Wong, better known as TS Wong, is suing CGS International for opting for cash dividends instead of the dividend reinvestment plan under Zetrix AI’s final dividend payment of 2.89 sen per share for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2025 (FY2025). 

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