PETALING JAYA: Hap Seng Consolidated Bhd is planning to establish five hotels in Malaysia mainly in the Klang Valley and Sabah in the next few years, marking its foray into the hospitality sector.
Hap Seng Land Sdn Bhd chief operating officer David Khor said the investment into the hotel industry is to diversify the group’s revenue stream and for additional recurring income.
Hap Seng Land is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hap Seng Consolidated.
Khor said the group has identified three locations for the hotels, namely, Jalan Kia Peng in Kuala Lumpur, the Metropolis development area located near the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre, and the Wisma KFC building in Jalan Sultan Ismail that it acquired last month. The remaining two hotels will be in Sabah.
“Four of the hotels will be managed by Hyatt and one by Mariott,” he told reporters at the sidelines after a certificate presentation by the Malaysia Book of Records yesterday.
At the ceremony, Hap Seng Land Sdn Bhd bagged the Malaysia Book of Records “Highest Indoor Green Wall”.
The green wall is located in Menara Hap Seng 3 featuring a 91.55m high indoor green wall, spanning vertically across all 20 levels of office space.
The green wall houses 10 different species of plants with over 27,000 individual pots.
“We made some reference to the green walls in Australia and Singapore. We also met with several agriculture specialists to bring the outdoor green wall indoors.
“When people walk into the building they can feel that the air is fresher as some of the plants here can remove toxins,” Khor said.
Hap Seng Consolidated group managing director Datuk Edward Lee Ming Foo said the group is looking to buy more land and existing buildings especially in the Klang Valley as part of its land banking strategy.
“The current environment is an opportunity for us. If you look at the company’s history, we have been quite aggressive in land acquisition during the economic downturn.
“During the economic downturn in 2007/2008, we acquired a 50% stake in Menara Citibank and we bought a piece of land from Eastern & Oriental Bhd (E&O) that is currently housing the Menara Hap Seng 2,” he said.
Over the past two weeks, Hap Seng has been on an acquisition spree that saw the group buying Wisma KFC in Jalan Sultan Ismail for RM190mil and a parcel of vacant commercial land on Jalan Duta for RM868.8mil.
Lee said the acquisition of Wisma KFC would add synergy to Hap Seng’s current three office buildings - Menara Hap Seng, Menara Hap Seng 2, Menara Hap Seng 3 –located in Jalan P. Ramlee.
He said the group plans to turn Wisma KFC into a hotel and to link it with Menara Hap Seng 3.
“This is an opportunity to link all these buildings by having the hotel here. It will benefit all the tenants and we will also be able to enhance our food and beverages outlets,” he said.
On its Jalan Duta land, Lee explained that the land is located at a prime location surrounded by affluent neighbourhoods such as Mont Kiara, Bangsar and Damansara Heights.
“As you know, this is the last piece of land in the Mont Kiara area. This is an opportunity for us to acquire this size of land in the area,” he added.
Hap Seng Consolidated group chairman Thomas Karl Rapp said he expected 2022 to remain challenging and the demand for office space to remain muted.
“It is very clear that we cannot just produce additional office space. It must fulfil more than just a purpose.
“Therefore, at Hap Seng we are looking into partnerships for our buildings as there are a lot of companies that are looking for a unique environment for office space,” he said.
“We are optimistic that the Hap Seng group will continue to grow its revenue and profit this year with the full reopening of all economic sectors,” he added.
Hap Seng is involved in six core businesses namely plantation, property investment and development, credit financing, automotive, trading and building materials.