Despite Raja Ropiaah’s land deal, Puspahanas not in sight

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On Jan 4, 2013

The carpark near the Health and Higher Education ministries in Precinct 1 of Putrajaya, which is the only known point on a map for the Puspahanas project.

(The Malaysian Insider) – Senator Datuk Seri Raja Ropiaah Abdullah might have settled her legal suit and sold hotly-contested land to Boustead Holdings Bhd (BHB) but questions remain whether the Selangor Wanita Umno chief’s firm has delivered a RM100 million defence education building to the government.

The National Defence Education Centre or Puspahanas project ground breaking was done on November 21, 2008 but the exact location of the building is a mystery, with the only known point on a map shown to be a carpark near the Health and Higher Education ministries in Precinct 1 of Putrajaya.

The unfinished Puspahanas is akin to an earlier scandal that engulfed Raja Ropiaah’s Wanita Umno chief, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, when her family was accused of using a RM250 million government soft loan for personal investment instead of the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) project.

There are no street signages in Putrajaya for the project, which her development company Awan Megah Sdn Bhd agreed to build in 2005 in exchange for some 80 hectares of land in Bukit Raja, Selangor and RM27 million.

The other mystery is how BHB could buy the Bukit Raja land as the government had stipulated the land couldn’t be sold by Awan Megah, which had earlier worked out a complicated deal with carpet dealer Deepak Jaikishan to finance the Puspahanas construction.

The controversial businessman had taken Raja Ropiaah to court when the deal fell through and she instead went into a joint-venture development with a plasticware maker.

His revelations before the civil suit, which was heard at the same time as the last Umno annual general assembly, later led to a settlement where his company, Astacanggih Sdn Bhd had its 80 per cent majority stake sold to a BHB unit for RM30 million.

Astacanggih has also proposed to buy Raja Ropiaah’s land for RM130 million, although the deal could not be secured earlier due to restrictions from the government, which had yet to receive the Puspahanas facility.

BHB yesterday cited expanding its landbank as the reason to buy into Astacanggih, adding today it was purely a commercial decision.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia, BHB said economies of scale can be achieved by combining the land with the adjacent 283.28ha land held under Jendela Hikmat Sdn Bhd, which the Boustead Group and Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT) jointly hold a 60 per cent equity interest.

Based on its experience, BHB said it is confident the acquisition of the development land will be able to generate a return on development cost of 25 per cent from the RM160 million investment.

An artist’s impression of the Puspahanas project.

Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latif Ahmad declined to comment yesterday on the project, saying he did not have any information about the project that was first mooted in 1971.