Malaysia Property: Mr. Ghazali Mohd Ali (Divisional Director) of Boustead Holdings Berhad

World Leading Developer Companies' Interview No.3

DIRECTOR PROFILE

Dato’ Sri Ghazali Mohd Ali was appointed to the board of director in March 2007 as the Non-independent Executive Director of Boustead Holdings Berhad. He was graduated with Town and Regional Planning from Western Australia Institute of Technology. Perth Prior to joining Boustead Holdings Berhad, he held several positions in the property industry for more than 30 years. He was served as Managing Director of Syarikat Perumahan Pegawai Kerajaan Sdn Bhd (SPPK) (in English: Government Officials Housing Companies Pte Ltd), Property Director of Island & Peninsular Berhad (I&P Berhad) as well as the Deputy Director General of The Urban Development Authority of Malaysia (UDA Holdings Berhad). Presently, Dato’ Sri Ghazali Mohd Ali is the fellow of Malaysian Institute of Planners.
 

COMPANY PROFILE 

Boustead Holdings Berhad, one of Malaysia's oldest conglomerates, was started on 1828 when Edward Boustead founded a modest trading company in Singapore. Its core business was primarily import and export, shipping, as well as insurance agents and ownership of rubber estates. In 1961, Boustead consolidated its various businesses to form a new public listed company known as Boustead & Co., Ltd. In 1966, the entity changed its name to Boustead Holdings Berhad and then in 1976, the Group became a wholly-owned Malaysian entity. 

Today the Boustead Group has an active interest in six core business of the Malaysian economy, namely Plantation, Property, Finance & Investment, Pharmaceutical, Trading & Industrial, and Heavy Industries.  This group now has been a firm believer in delivering shareholder value. With more than 17,000 employees in both listed and non-listed subsidiaries, Boustead is committed to raising the bar in developing Malaysia's human capital.

What is your company policy? 

Our company first policy is to give value to the shareholders who have invested their money. We also want to deliver a healthy dividend to the shareholders as well as to be corporate responsible citizens who provide core value to the society.

What aspect do you think is the most important to manage Boustead Holdings? 

Integrity is definitely the most important aspect of managing this company. To make it clear, choosing integrity means we want to make sure Boustead’s entire employee work hard and dedicated to delivering our company’s target.

What is your target for Boustead Holdings in 2017? 

To talk about target, 2016 has been the best year for our company where we managed to achieve our target very well. Therefore, of course, our target in this year is to do as good as the year 2016 since our company achieved strong earnings with a record profit of RM324 million for property division in 2016. This outstanding performance was mainly due to the gain realized on disposal of the associate company, Jendela Hikmat Sdn Bhd. So, we will continue finding ways to reduce the cost of production to achieve our target.

What is the latest development project of Boustead Holdings? 

The latest project we are developing and about to launch is One Cochrane Residence, located just 4.2km southeast from Kuala Lumpur City Centre, it takes about 10 minutes by car and directly opposite to IKEA Cheras and new MyTown Shopping Centre. This prestigious residential developed by our subsidiary which is Mutiara Rini Sdn Bhd. This project is estimated to be complete in year 2020. We also developing commercial office and retail called ‘Nucleus Tower’ in Mutiara Damansara.

What is the greatest development project in Boustead Holdings? 

Actually, each project has their own uniqueness and greatness because all projects have different purposes. Johor has more housing development while in Kuala Lumpur has more mix development. However, obviously, projects located in Kuala Lumpur have a higher value because of the high demand. For example, the project in Mutiara Damansara in Kuala Lumpur give a better return compared to Mutiara Rini in Johor because we made a substantial profit but meanwhile project in Johor also supports our overall achievement. So I think there is no such thing as the greatest one, or just great because all projects contribute money to the company and each project has a different purpose.

What kind of strength does your company have in proceeding projects?

To talk about this, our company strength comes from two aspects; physical aspect and non-physical aspect. The physical aspect is that we build enough type of real estate units which comes in many type of development and various wide of the exclusive area starting from 80㎡ to 225㎡ and house type. Therefore we can fulfill many kinds of need.  The other strength is this company had got about 20 years of experience to build the real estate which gives us the profit to do more projects in the future. The non-physical aspect is the experience of the staff, the relationship that we gain with the authorities to approve us to do the projects and also the belief of our clientele.

Which one are you focusing on, local or foreign customers? 

Basically both but if possible, we prefer to focus on local customers to a certain extent. For example, projects in Johor, we are looking for local because it is landed residential and the price restriction is not open for foreign buyers. But, there is also a project in Ampang Hilir (not under Boustead but it is part of the Group) that will probably open for more foreigners compared to local because of the price restriction is above RM1 million. However, if there are more potential local buyers, then we will offer for local first. The reason is we don’t want the units to be unoccupied because usually foreigners just bought the units and they continue living in their country of origin. So, this situation does not add value to the development.

What is your message for the foreign investors? 

We are a developer that people can put trust on because we have a good reputation. If the investors buy the properties from us, which means you are buying from the reputable developer.  We believe we can deliver a good quality that you want based on the price that you pay. 

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