Prosma may take up unsold PR1MA units for own RTO scheme

Published on theSundaily (http://www.thesundaily.my)

By Eva Yeong
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PETALING JAYA: Little-known Prosma Bhd, which has received a fresh mandate from the
Finance Ministry, is exploring the possibility of buying unsold PR1MA homes for its rent-to-own
(RTO) scheme.

Prosma CEO Zamri Abdullah said the company has been instructed by the Finance Ministry to
engage with Perbadanan PR1MA Malaysia to discuss the possibility of injecting these assets into
the RTO scheme.

“We will meet PR1MA on Nov 29. This is just a discussion, nothing has been decided. We will
discuss with PR1MA whether or not to acquire the unsold units for our scheme,” he told SunBiz.
Asked how many units Prosma may acquire from PR1MA, he said that will depend on talks with
the corporation.

He said he was not informed about the number of available units for sale to
Prosma but was told that PR1MA has “a lot of unsold units” in various stages of construction.
PR1MA recently announced that 12,640 units of 25,132 PR1MA homes open for sale have been
sold.

On whether PR1MA’s own RTO scheme may be scrapped following the possible arrangement
with Prosma, Zamri said he is unsure but believes that PR1MA will continue with its own RTO
scheme, which differs from Prosma’s.

“PR1MA’s RTO scheme is for five years or 10 years while Prosma’s scheme is up to 30 years,”
he added.

Zamri said if discussions are successful, Prosma will acquire PR1MA’s unsold units and offer
them under its RTO scheme. The same requirements and process apply for these units,
including eligibility criteria and interview of applicants.

Prosma’s RTO scheme is targeted at those with a monthly household income of RM5,000 and
above. The units offered must be at least 900 sq ft with prices ranging from RM300,000 to
RM500,000 depending on location.

Prosma started promoting the scheme in 2015 and began the interview process last year. As of
Aug 1, it has signed 70 contracts valued at RM10 million in total. It aims to sign 500 contracts in
total this year.

PR1MA homes are targeted at households with a monthly income of RM2,500 to RM15,000.
Eligible applicants who are unable to obtain end-financing for these homes have the option to
participate in the RTO scheme.

However, a check on PR1MA’s RTO scheme website revealed that applications for the
programme are unavailable at the moment and will be made available soon. As at press time,
PR1MA had not responded to queries from SunBiz.

Meanwhile, Prosma is considering a sukuk to fund its acquisition activities and has started the
documentation process.

“We have met with Danajamin and have submitted our documents to them ... they are carrying
out due diligence and verifying our documents,” said Zamri.

As the entire process, including obtaining approval from the Securities Commission Malaysia, will
take at least three to four months, the sukuk will be launched only in the first quarter of 2018 at
the earliest.

Source URL: http://www.thesundaily.my/news/2017/11/22/prosma-may-take-unsold-pr1ma-units-own-rto-scheme