KUALA LUMPUR: The Merdeka 118 project is fully funded by Permodalan Nasional Bhd's (PNB) and not the Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) unitholders, president and group chief executive Ahmad Zulqarnain Onn clarifies.
At today's Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) dividend announcement, Zulqarnain said the 678.9-metre tower is 100 per cent owned by PNB, via the group's wholly-owned subsidiary, PNB Merdeka Ventures Sdn Bhd.
"The equity injection for the Merdeka 118 tower project is obtained by PNB's proprietary fund, with development funded by the issuances of two sukuk funds in 2016 - Sukuk SRI Hijau Merdeka Asean programme and Sukuk Murabahah Merdeka," he said.
In November, Zulqarnain said the Merdeka 118 Tower, which is 85 per cent completed, is on track for completion by late 2022.
Due to the Movement Control Order (MCO), the construction of the iconic tower was delayed by more than six months from its initial target of end 2021.
Spanning over 3.1 million sq ft of floor area, the Merdeka 118 tower includes 1.7 million sq ft of the net lettable area of Premium Grade-A rentable office space.
The top 17 floors will house the first and only Park Hyatt Hotel in Malaysia.
Setting new benchmarks in sustainability, the Merdeka 118 tower will be the first building in the country to earn platinum rating with international sustainability certifications, namely Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Green Real Estate (GreenRE) and Green Building Index (GBI).