Location of the New Aeon Senawang
Aeon Co (M) Bhd expects to spend about RM700 million in capital expenditure (capex) this year, a slight increase from RM676 million capex last year.
Executive director for corporate finance and investor relation Poh Ying Loo said the capex would be spent on new malls to be opened later this year and early next year as well as to increase its landbank.
He said the group would open two new malls by the fourth quarter of this year in Shah Alam and Ipoh, plus a mall in Kota Baru early next year.
The group, he said after the firm’s annual meeting today, owned 13 pieces of land purchased in various locations for the purpose of expanding its malls and this included land recently bought in Senawang, Kempas and Batu Pahat.
Chairman Datuk Abdullah Mohd Yusof said the group’s strategy was to either buy land and build or to be a master lease for a period 15 to 20 years, and the current portfolio was quite balanced at 50:50 ratio between leased and owned.
On the outlook for 2015, he said it was going to be a challenging year amid the uncertainty in the economy which is affecting the local market, increase in cost of living as well as the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which have brought about some negative perception in the market.
However, Abdullah said the group was confident to meet the challenges and perform positively going forward.
On the impact of the GST on consumer buying trend, managing director Nur Qamarina Chew Abdullah said there was a 25% year-on-year rise in demand pre-GST in March while spending in April slowed by 20% - The Rakyat Post
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