KUALA LUMPUR (May 29): Paramount Corp Bhd said the group is currently in talks with potential partners for its venture into overseas property markets within the next five years.

Paramount group chief executive officer Jeffrey Chew told reporters after the group's annual general meeting here today that his team is currently studying the residential property markets in Thailand, Vietnam, Australia and the Philippines, and aims to pursue one or two of these markets under its five-year plan starting 2020.

"We do see the Malaysian property market in the major urban centres getting fairly mature. So rightly said, the next step is to really look at potentially going out of the country… I think we are ready to go.

"We are actually conducting market research on a couple of cities, visiting the sites, learning about the markets, and talking to potential partners as well," he said, adding that Paramount will likely collaborate with joint venture partners in line with the group's asset-light business strategy.

Meanwhile, Chew said Paramount is maintaining its RM1 billion sales target set for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2019 (FY19) despite challenges of a softer property market seen, as the group still has some RM800 million worth of launches lined up for the remaining quarters of the year.

This includes Sejati Lakeside in Cyberjaya, Utropolis Batu Kawan in Penang, as well as its Selangorku affordable homes project, he said.

As at end-March, the group has unbilled sales totalling RM907 million.

Shares in Paramount settled unchanged at RM2.11 apiece at noon break today, bringing a market capitalisation of RM914.36 million.