(KUALA LUMPUR) Malaysia's UEM Land has seen property sales picking up after a lacklustre first quarter but its goal to grow sales by 20 per cent this year remains challenging, its head said yesterday.

'It's challenging. I will not lead you elsewhere. It's tough but we have not given up,' UEM Land managing director Wan Abdullah Wan Ibrahim told Reuters in an interview.

He said that UEM Land is finalising a plan to raise RM354 million (S$146 million) via bank borrowings and is working on a phase two financing programme.

He declined to provide details or disclose the amount that the company plans to raise, saying that it is looking at various instruments. He added that UEM Land is in 'serious discussions' with four companies for development projects in Iskandar Malaysia, a government-sponsored economic zone in the southern Johor state near Singapore.

Mr Wan Abdullah's remarks came as Dubai-based Damac Properties last week confirmed that it had cancelled a RM396 million land deal with UEM Land in Iskandar.

Khazanah Nasional, the investment arm of the government, controls 77 per cent of UEM Land. -- Reuters

Techkon To Sell Units In Westech Building

Techkon Investment is selling a new eight-storey light industrial building at Pandan Loop.

Marketing agent Colliers International said yesterday that the property - Westech Building - comprises 70 units, with sizes starting from 1,000 square feet. Prices start at $510 per sq ft (psf).

Most of the units have a column-free layout with a loading capacity of 7.5 kN per sq m to 15 kN per sq m and a floor-to-ceiling height of 4.5 m to 6.8 m.

The 999-year leasehold property has 120 parking lots and two loading bays with levellers.

Temporary Occupation Permit is expected in the first quarter of 2010.

Colliers said that the project is suitable for companies in the research and development, electronics, pharmaceutical and information technology sectors.

Ground-floor units, with full glass frontage, can be used as showrooms.

Units on the second to eighth storeys have windows that reach almost three-quarters of the way down from the ceiling.

Westech, in the West Coast area, has access to the Central Business District and other parts of Singapore via the West Coast Highway and Ayer Rajah Expressway, as well as the nearby Clementi MRT station and bus interchange.

It is also reasonably close to major business centres including International Business Park, Singapore Science Park and Jurong Industrial Park.