KUALA LUMPUR (March 14): I-Bhd today launched 8Kia Peng@KLCC King of the Hill, a high-end luxurious development in the central business district vicinity of the Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC).

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who officiated the property launch, said that I-Bhd's 8Kia Peng@KLCC project is a good example of private sector contributing to propel Greater KL into the top 20 most liveable and economically vibrant cities in the world.

8Kia Peng@KLCC is made up of a single 50-storey condominium on a freehold land with gross development value (GDV) of RM1 billion. The 442 luxurious residences, with selling prices of RM1.5 million and above, targets international buyers from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and Singapore.

"We are not worried about the current soft property market as we are targeting overseas buyers for this project and the initial responses from the international community have been positive. The weaker ringgit has worked to their advantage and made real estate in KL an attractive investment," said the company's deputy chairman Datuk Eu Hong Chew.

"For KL to be a top global city, our public transportation must be world-class. The various infrastructure projects rolled out by government will help to attract global investors to invest or live in KL. To this end, we are looking at programmes like the Malaysia My Second Home to assist our buyers to set up residences in Malaysia," he added.

8Kia Peng@KLCC is I-Bhd's maiden development project outside i-City, Shah Alam, which has a total GDV of RM9 billion. I-Bhd plans to launch the "Hyde Tower", a RM268 million residential tower, in the first quarter of 2016 and the "Central Towers", a RM1.2 billion mixed development, by end-2016.

For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2015, I-Bhd posted a marginal 1.4% decline in revenue to RM257.4 million from a year ago while net profit fell 19.5% year-on-year to RM43 million. The group's unbilled sales as at end-2015 stood at RM691.7 million, up from RM546.3 million a year ago.