KUALA LUMPUR (March 19): Eco World International Bhd (EWI) said today that it has completed stage 1 acquisitions of six sites in the UK for GBP63.76 million (RM348.47 million) under EWI and the UK-based Willmott Dixon Holdings Ltd's development arm Be Living Holdings Ltd's planned joint development of 12 sites in Greater London and the South East of England.

On Dec 15, 2017, EWI said in a statement that the planned acquisition of the 12 sites would be carried out in two stages. The company said the 12 sites are located within the London commuter belt in areas where the local population lives and commutes to the capital for work.

Today, EWI told Bursa Malaysia: "The board wishes to announce that the Stage 1 Acquisitions were completed on 16 March 2018 at around 8:00 p.m. London time (i.e. 17 March 2018 at around 4:00 a.m. Malaysia time), following the settlement of the provisional Stage 1 consideration, amounting to GBP63.76
million (equivalent to about RM348.47 million)".

"The completion of the Stage 1 Acquisitions has added approximately GBP1.1 billion to EcoWorld International’s remaining GDV of GBP1.01 billion (as at 31 October 2017) and upon completion of the Stage 2 SPAs, the group’s GDV will increase by another GBP1.5 billion. In terms of the number of projects, this has increased from only 3 projects to 9 with the completion of the Stage 1 Acquisitions and once the Stage 2 Acquisitions are completed, EcoWorld International will have 15 projects in the United Kingdom."

At Bursa Malaysia today, EWI shares settled at RM1.01 at 12:30pm for a market capitalisation of RM2.42 billion. EWI's share trade was suspended between 9am and 10am today, in conjunction with the announcement.