Keppel Land to divest West Bali site, citing focus on Greater Jakarta market

KEPPEL Land is axing its stake in an Indonesian associate that is set to sell off a West Bali site.

This move is meant to help sharpen the company's focus on the Jakarta market.

It expects to record a net divestment gain of about S$17.6 million by the end of 2017, parent group Keppel Corporation said in a Singapore Exchange announcement on Tuesday evening.

Keppel Land now has an effective 24.5 per cent in Purimas Straits Resort, which has entered into an agreement to sell the 20.5 ha site to Bali Sudamala Development.

The Keppel unit will also be divesting its entire interest in Purimas Straits Resort, through capital reduction and sale of shares.

The land in the Tanah Lot district was acquired in the late 1990s to be redeveloped into an integrated resort featuring luxury villas.

But those plans never materialised.

Reasons cited over the years in Keppel Land's annual reports included the hit to the tourism sector from the 2002 Bali bombings and other unfavourable investment conditions.

Goh York Lin, Keppel Land's president for Indonesia, said in a media release on the latest move: "The divestment will allow Keppel Land to redeploy capital and scale up in Indonesia, where we are focused on Greater Jakarta."

The company in September 2017 sealed a 586 billion rupiah (S$58.7 million) deal to snap up a prime plot in Jakarta's central business district - adjacent to its International Financial Centre Jakarta office project - to be turned into high-rise luxury apartments.

Keppel Land considers Vietnam and Indonesia to be key growth markets, on top of the core markets of Singapore and China.