Malton Berhad is an investment holding company engaged in construction, development and sale of properties primarily in Malaysia. It includes residential, retail, commercial and mixed use properties. They also offer the services of design, development and management to construct works for commercial and residential projects. It includes construction of shopping complex such as Pavilion Shopping Centre. Their residential projects include condominium, shop office, luxurious apartment and houses. Furthermore, they also had construction projects of highway interchange and high-rise buildings such as Menara Uni Asia (Malton Berhad Group, n.d.).
Malton’s origin came from three different group which are Khuan Choo Group, Bukit Rimau and Domain Group. Khuan Choo Group started construction and property development business in 1980. Khuan Choo Group launched its own property development project named Kuchai Business Centre. Since then, it succeeded to complete several projects such as houses and high-rise office buildings. Besides, Bukit Rimau Development developed properties, especially residential houses in heavily populated areas such as Shah Alam, Subang Jaya and Klang. Many of their projects received high support due to their innovative resort lifestyle concept which makes their property development rather unique compared to other companies. In addition, Domain Group carry out construction and project management activities. Domain Group helped to rehabilitate a lot of properties and construction projects. These three groups were incorporated in 1994 by the name of Optimum Balance Berhad. On 20 February 2002, the group was named to Malton Berhad. By April 2002, Malton Berhad officially included in Bursa Malaysia (Malton Berhad Group, n.d.).
Malton targets fast growing areas in Klang Valley such as Shah Alam, Petaling Jaya, Subang and Bukit Bintang in order to compete with other property companies. Unlike some companies, Malton focuses more on residential properties such as link houses and bungalows compared to other companies where they have other sectors such as plantations and industrial. Malton has two main division which are property development and construction and project management (Malton Berhad Group, n.d.). Under property development, Malton develops and constructs their own properties to be sold or used. On the other hand, construction and project management division mainly help other developers to construct projects, for example, Pavilion building at Bukit Bintang.
Other than Malton, there are other property companies that are doing their business in Malaysia. Under Bursa Malaysia, there are at least 70 other companies in this market; therefore, Malton’s market structure can be classified as Monopolistic Competition (Bursa Malaysia, 2014). Malton might be able to charge more for their properties especially houses which are built in popular areas like Subang Jaya or Petaling Jaya, so Malton has slightly small power in property market. However, charging too much for their properties might result in shift of their buyers to another companies.
Malton has direct and indirect competitors in the market. Example of Malton’s direct rivals are Encorp Berhad, Setia Berhad and Magna Prima Berhad just to name a few. The reason these companies are direct rivals to Malton is because they build residential houses in about the same locations as Malton. For example, Encorp Berhad has ‘Encorp Cahaya Alam’ residential houses (Encorp Berhad, n.d.), Setia Berhad has ‘Setia Alam’ residential houses (Setia Berhad, n.d.), and Malton has Bayu Villas in Shah Alam (Malton Berhad Group, n.d.). With the presence of other residential houses from other companies within the same area, Malton will have fierce competition in order to get buyers to buy Malton’s properties. Example of Malton’s indirect rivals are Sime Darby Berhad and Ken Holdings Berhad just to name a few. The reason these companies are not really challenging Malton’s properties is because these companies have different sectors besides residential properties while Malton’s main focus is residential properties. As an example, Sime Darby has residential house properties but the number is way less than Malton’s because Sime Darby has to focus on other sectors such as plantation and industrial (Sime Darby Berhad, 2013).
Malton Berhad maintains its current revenue by having its own construction division. It eliminates the cost of negotiating with constructors from outside the company; therefore, Malton will be able to cut their cost (Ng, 2008). Equally important, Tracey Lai, director of marketing for Malton Berhad stated that Malton’s focus is on niche market, market which has a small market size, such as high-end property market (Ng, 2008). High-end properties and estates price in Malaysia is still under-priced compared to other countries in the region, so more foreigners will be able to come and invest in high-end properties in Malaysia (Ng, 2008). By having more investors and buyers from outside, Malton will be able to maintain its revenue while reducing construction cost through construction division.
Malton Berhad operates predominantly in property development in which it engages in the business of constructing and developing residential properties. Malton Berhad develops quite a number of residential properties so as to not be outstripped by its powerful competitors like Sunway Property and IOI Properties Berhad. There are a number of residential developments by Malton Berhad are 358-acre Bukit Rimau township comprising bungalows, semi-dees, superlink homes, zero-lots, cluster homes as well as luxurious apartments Vila Mutiara in Bangsar, Li Villas II condominiums and Pearl Villas in Section 16 Petaling Jaya (Malton Berhad Group, n.d.).
Malton Berhad benefits from government involvement in a particular programme called "Malaysia: My Second Home". The Malaysian Government established the programme in the hope to allow foreigners that meet the conditions required to stay in Malaysia for an unrestricted period of time (Malton Berhad Group, n.d.). According to Malton Berhad Group (n.d.), "Every successful applicant of the programme will be issued a Multiple-Entry Visa with Social Visit Pass, which is renewable every 10 years." The applicants of this programme would get the advantages such as being able to bring in their own car or purchase a car tax free in Malaysia. Not only the participants are allowed to bring their children, but also they can further their studies at international colleges and universities. Participants are allowed to purchase any residential property priced above RM250,000.00 each except for certain areas in Sarawak (above RM300,000.00) (Malton Berhad Group, n.d.).
In conclusion, Malton Berhad is one of the biggest property companies in Malaysia. Malton always tries to focus in giving choices from different projects for people. Malton also has to compete with powerful competitors in order to get revenue as well as maintaining the stability of the company. In the future, Malton will start more projects in other areas such as Bukit Jalil and Sungai Buloh. By expanding to more areas, Malton will be able to gain more investors and buyers for their properties.
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