KUALA LUMPUR: Starting over has not been easy for Tan Sri Liew Kee Sin, who left SP Setia Bhd in 2014 and set up Eco World Development Group Bhd (Eco World).
“Everything looks easy when you start all over again because of the experience, but in reality, it really isn’t,” said Liew, who has helped put Malaysia on the London property map through the iconic Battersea project.
Liew, who built SP Setia over 20 years to become Malay-sia’s biggest listed property developer by sales, is hoping to repeat the success with Eco World.
“This year we expect our profit to double. We are targeting sales of RM4 billion, which is RM1 billion higher than last year.
“We have RM4.15 billion in unbilled sales. If we can continue our sales like that, then within five years we will be there,” he said in an exclusive interview with Business Times at the newly-launched Bukit Bintang City Centre (BBCC) sales gallery, here, yesterday.
The RM8.7 billion BBCC is Eco World’s biggest project, in which it has a 40 per cent stake. The other shareholders are UDA Holdings Bhd (40 per cent) and the Employees Provident Fund (20 per cent).
Eco World has 17 ongoing developments — in the Klang Valley, Penang and Iskandar Malaysia in Johor — with a combined gross development value (GDV) of RM81.2 billion.
Liew also formed Eco World International Bhd, a private entity that owns a 75 per cent stake in three water fronting residential projects in London, with total GDV of £2.4 billion, and another project in Sydney, Australia.
One of the concerns in Eco World’s early years was whether land owners would sell land to the new company, said Liew, who studied economics at Universiti Malaya.
“Fortunately, luck was on my side. I also always honour my word with every person I deal with. The trust is there. So the land owners agreed to sell their land to Eco World and that was how we grew over the past three years,” he said.
One of the land owners was tycoon Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary, who offered Liew two sites in Johor, next to Nusajaya and in Tebrau.
“We are building Eco Spring and Eco Summer, a tranquil garden township in Tebrau, which focuses on medium-cost and high-end properties, respectively. Next to Nusajaya we are developing Eco Botanic,” said the Johor-born Liew.
The former banker-turned-property magnate said he could have retired at 55 but felt there was still more to be done.
“I had a humble beginning. My mother was a rubber tapper and my father, a lorry driver. My father told me despite being a poor man he would give us a purpose in life.
“I could have easily retired at 55, but I know if I continue to work, all my four children will respect me.
“In their minds, I came out of a business and ventured into another. I am grateful that at this age I can still manage to work. I believe that as a country, society or family, you must have a purpose in life,” he added. Additional reporting by Amir Hisyam Rasid