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The company’s second mall in Penang and fourth in Malaysia aimed to form seed asset for its planned S$418.6mln Malaysia retail property fund. CapitaMalls Asia Limited is pleased to announce on Wednesday that it will acquire Queensbay Mall in Penang, Malaysia, for about RM651.8 million (S$272.8 million), or a total acquisition cost of about RM658.3 million (S$275.6 million) including acquisition-related costs. The acquisition will be carried out through CapitaMalls Asia’s subsidiaries and an asset-backed securitisation structure. CapitaMalls Asia will acquire about 90.7% of the mall’s retail strata area (about 916,181 square feet (“sq ft”)) and all its car park spaces. With net lettable area (“NLA”) of the strata spaces of about 892,361 sq ft, the purchase price is equivalent to about RM730 (S$306) per sq ft of NLA. Queensbay Mall is Penang’s largest mall, conveniently located at Bayan Lepas along the south-eastern shorefront of Penang island and about 20 minutes’ drive from Penang International Airport. It is a family lifestyle mall located at the heart of a 73-acre prime waterfront integrated development which comprises a hotel, a wide range of residential homes and planned office towers. It is easily accessible from the north of the island via the Jelutong Expressway, and from the south via the Bayan Lepas Expressway. Queensbay Mall’s central location, excellent transport links and proximity to the Penang Bridge and Bayan Lepas industrial hub in Penang’s Free Trade Zone allow it to serve about 1.6 million people on Penang island and the peninsula mainland. The mall’s accessibility will be further enhanced in the future with the planned development of the proposed second link bridge from the south of Penang island to Seberang Prai on the mainland, according to a CapitaMalls Asia report. This will be CapitaMalls Asia’s second mall in Penang and fourth in Malaysia. The other three malls – Gurney Plaza in Penang, an interest in Sungei Wang Plaza in Kuala Lumpur, and The Mines in Selangor – are owned through CapitaMalls Asia’s stake in CapitaMalls Malaysia Trust. Mr Lim Beng Chee, CEO of CapitaMalls Asia, said, “Gurney Plaza, which we already own through CapitaMalls Malaysia Trust, and Queensbay Mall are the two best malls in Penang. The acquisition of Queensbay Mall, the largest shopping mall in Penang, will substantially strengthen CapitaMalls Asia’s market leadership in the state. This acquisition signals our ongoing commitment to invest in Malaysia’s retail sector for the long-term, following our listing of CapitaMalls Malaysia Trust in July this year.” “While Queensbay Mall’s property yield is about 5.0%, we will leverage on our scale and expertise to upgrade the mall further through remixing the tenancy as well as improving the asset plan to realise the potential of the mall. Queensbay Mall will also form the seed asset for our planned RM1.0 billion Malaysia retail property fund, to potentially provide a pipeline of shopping malls for CapitaMalls Malaysia Trust to acquire.”