IBHD (4251) I-BERHAD eyes more
Maybank, Malaysia's largest bank by assets, will occupy 14 floors of the Grade A Green Building Index (GBI) smart office tower, totaling 162,000 square feet, as a permanent alternate office location for the group.
SHAH ALAM: The chief of I-Berhad said that efforts are being made to attract more leading and pioneering projects to set up shop in i-City, located in the capital city of Selangor, following Malayan Banking Bhd's (Maybank) move to Sumurwang Tower.
Maybank, Malaysia's largest bank by assets, will occupy 14 floors of the Grade A Green Building Index (GBI) smart office tower, totaling 162,000 square feet, as a permanent alternate office location for the group.
The office space will be able to accommodate roughly 1,400 Maybank employees by the first half of 2022.
According to I-Berhad chairman Tan Sri Lim Kim Hong, Sumurwang Tower will be renamed Mercu Maybank.
Lim said he was pleased with Maybank's decision to strategically expand its operations to i-City, offering high standards of quality and sustainability at a prime location.
"With Maybank's entry into the smart office tower, we achieved an 80 per cent take-up rate within the first year of completion, despite the ongoing pandemic. We'll be getting more tenants soon to fill up the remaining available space," he said.
The smart office tower with Multimedia Super Corridor status will house Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions, multinational corporations, and international logistic players, Lim said.
I-Berhad is in discussions with foreign institutions about establishing jointly-invested or wholly-owned operations in securities, funds, futures, insurance, pension management and fund advisory in order to expand the RM10 billion i-City development.
"We believe the time has come to bring in more firms. The pandemic has accelerated the need for decentralised operations for business continuity management (BCM), and i-City is quickly becoming the preferred location. There will be good times ahead," he told the New Straits Times (NST).
A spokesperson from Maybank told the NST recently that the group's decision to secure office space in Sumurwang Tower was solely for BCM and resiliency planning to ensure its operations and service delivery were not disrupted.
The spokesperson added that the tower would serve as an additional permanent alternate office site for the group to accommodate new work arrangements resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, such as hybrid and remote work considerations for the group's various functions and businesses.
Lim said the Multimedia Super Corridor-certified i-City development is served by the Mother of Internet technology-related infrastructure, dedicated internet access powered by a 400G capable high availability network.
As such, he believes that i-City can help to accelerate the development of finance and information technology in the services industry.
"Our network connectivity is also geared up and future-ready for the deployment of 5G technology which will be deployed in Selangor by next year," he said.
i-City has a gross development value of RM10 billion and comprises corporate towers, cyber office suites, serviced residences, hotels, convention centres, Tier 3 data centres, Central i-City mall, and a CNN accolade leisure theme park.
By the end of 2021, I-Berhad will see the completion of DoubleTree by Hilton and Hill10 Residences, which is sitting on top of the hotel
The hotel is slated to welcome its guests in 2022, Lim said.
Spanning across 320,000 square feet, "Malaysia's No. 1 Technology City" has all the right ingredients to be the next regional financial hub as well as home to global fortune 500 companies not only with its technology integration but also with its strategic location, said Lim.
Upon completion, i-City will house 25,000 residents and 30,000 knowledge workers.
https://www.nst.com.my/business/2021/11/744573/i-berhad-eyes-more-leading-firms-i-city-following-maybanks-move-sumurwang
