Tanco Holdings Bhd hopes to attract new interest for Dickson Bay in Negeri Sembilan amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the developer, the development of Dickson Bay is not cast in stone.
It told Bursa Malaysia that Dickson Bay is set to evolve its strategies to attract strategic collaborations both from prospective partners, investors, and operators, after having completed 76 per cent of Splash Park.
Splash Park is a water theme park, hotel and serviced apartment project in Dickson Bay, which in turn is a 160-hectare sea-fronting integrated resort development located along Jalan Pantai in Mukim Pasir Panjang in Port Dickson.
Dickson Bay has an estimated total gross development value of RM13.4 billion and is expected to be developed in various phases over the next 10 years.
It will be the largest integrated resort in Port Dickson, with several themed attractions which include an 18-hole golf course, STEM EduPark, wellness zone, spa village, hotels and service suites, retirement village, retail, and entertainment facilities.
In October 2016, Tanco's unit Palm Springs Development (PSD) Sdn Bhd had inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Evergreen Offshore Inc, a Hong Kong-based private equity firm to jointly develop Dickson Bay.
There was speculation that the partnership will spur the development of a DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel and a convention hall in the resort.
However, exactly two years after the MoU was signed Evergreen Offshore terminated the agreement with PSD.
In a bourse filing, Tanco attributed the cancellation to some unexpected problems arising from Evergreen's identified potential investors which it did not name.
Evergreen manages the Asia Pacific One Belt One Road Tourism Industry Fund, which was set up with a long-term vision to promote the tourism sector in countries along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road to target the tourism sector in countries such as Malaysia.
In May 2019, PSD entered into another agreement, this time a 20-year land lease agreement with Time IT in E (Sabah) Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eduspec Holdings Bhd for the latter to develop STEM EduPark in Dickson Bay.
Tanco, known for projects such as Bandar Country Homes in Rawang and Duta Vista in Damansara said the rationale for the lease agreement is to take cognisance of Eduspec's experience and expertise in the education industry.
The theme park aims to introduce out-of-classroom, interesting, fun, and engaging learning experience in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to the public.
Cautiously optimistic
Tanco had deferred the completion and operations of Splash Park and said that this has been a blessing in light of the unfortunate economic situation brought about by the much needed Covid-19 countermeasures employed by the government.
It said that the board remains positive on the group's sustainability but is cautiously optimistic about the market prospects for the remainder of the financial year 2020.
Tanco has been loss-making for seven consecutive quarters, with losses of RM9.24 million recorded in the first nine months of the financial year 2020, compared with RM11 million the year before. It posted lower revenue of RM2.7 million for the nine months period, versus to RM3.68 million in the same period last year.
In the current quarter ended March 31, 2020 Tanco posted a net loss of RM3.2 million as compared to a net loss of RM4.2 million in the same period a year ago, mainly because of lower revenue generated from its property development and management segment and lower cost of sales.
The group's revenue was RM568,000 in the current quarter ended March 31, 2020, versus RM809,000 it posted in the same period in 2019.
Tanco said it will continuously review the market conditions under the conditional movement control order (MCO) and beyond so that it could identify, formulate, and develop more strategic business prospects and opportunities.
"With the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak continuing to affect lives and livelihood everywhere, and with global and local economies reeling with the various countermeasures deployed to combat its spread like nationwide lockdowns seen globally and closer to home, the MCO, enhanced MCO and the conditional MCO, the overall sentiment for the remainder of the financial year 2020 is expected to remain cautious and challenging," it said.
Tanco said with the ongoing efforts by the government to stimulate the local economy such as the reopening of most industries and economic sectors and with more interest rate cuts from Bank Negara Malaysia, the group's activities in the development of investment-type property projects should be well placed to benefit accordingly.
The group had planned to develop a resort-based property project in Kuantan, Pahang for several years now.
The project, Kuantan Hotel Suites, is expected to feature a 20-storey boutique hotel with 365 rooms and suites on beachfront land at Beserah beach just 15 minutes from Kuantan.