Property management company AsiaMalls Management has been wholly acquired by Pramerica AsiaRetail Limited after the buyout of Guthrie GTS’s joint venture stake.
Pramerica AsiaRetail is managed by Pramerica Real Estate Investors.
AsiaMalls currently manages a number of retail properties in Singapore and Malaysia. Its Singapore portfolio comprises six malls and an office building in Singapore totaling 1.5 million sqft (139,355 sqm) of net lettable area. These include Century Square, Hougang Mall, Liang Court, Tampines 1, Tiong Bahru Plaza and White Sands.
The company’s Malaysian malls, with a total net lettable area of 2.2 million sqft (204,387 sqm) are located in key cities including Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Ipoh.
Pramerica and AsiaMalls are leading the refurbishment and repositioning of White Sands and Tiong Bahru Plaza. An extensive $40 million renovation at White Sands is close to completion, and a $90 million upgrade at Tiong Bahru Plaza, is currently in progress.
AsiaMalls has appointed Tan Kee Yong as its MD to spearhead this next phase of growth. Kee Yong will oversee and ensure the integration of its Singapore and Malaysia portfolio to create a robust cross-border retail management platform.
Kee Yong has more than 30 years of work experience in the real estate sector. Most recently he was senior VP for retail management at CapitaLand Mall Asia, where he covered both local and overseas markets, and he played a key role in the management of joint ventures and retail operations in Singapore, China and India. Prior to CapitaLand Mall Asia, Kee Yong held senior executive positions in Far East Organization, Suntec City Management.
Richard Ng, executive director at Pramerica said the company is focused on continually improving its real estate portfolios.
“In addition to preserving and enhancing the value of our property assets through timely refurbishments, we recognise that strong property management is key to delivering long term returns to our investors. Internalising AsiaMalls and strengthening its retail management competence is integral to our business strategy.”
Over the next few months, AsiaMalls plans to launch various customer loyalty and shopper engagement programs that leverage the latest technology and strategic partnerships to provide a differentiated and enhanced shopper experience. Tenant engagement remains another key focus with various tenant-landlord business partnerships, data analytics and service support initiatives in the pipeline.
