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Mara to make A$6.5m profit selling 'overpriced' Melbourne property
Published:  Dec 23, 2017 5:11 PM
Updated: 9:34 AM

Mara subsidiary Mara Inc is set to make an A$6.5 million profit selling a property in Melbourne that it had allegedly first acquired at an inflated price.

Mara Inc finalised the sale of the 333 Exhibition Street property for A$37.5 million (RM118 million) according to a Bernama report last night.

It had purchased the six-storey office building in 2013 for A$31 million or RM97.57 million at the current exchange rate. At the end of 2013, A$31 million was worth RM89.9 million.

The 333 Exhibition Street property was one of four properties Mara Inc had purchased in Melbourne between 2012 and 2013, at an allegedly inflated price.

The other properties were 51, Queen Street; Unilodge on Swanston Street; and the Dudley International House.

National Oversight and Whistleblowers (Now) executive director Akmal Nasir (photo) claimed that at the time of purchase, the 333 Exhibition Street property's market value was only A$22 million, not the A$31 million that Mara Inc paid for.

Mara Inc had in January sold the 51, Queen Street property for A$23.4 million.

It had originally purchased the property in 2013 for A$21 million. Akmal claimed this was A$5.35 million over market value.

Malaysiakini, in an expose last month, highlighted how Mara lost RM60 million in purchasing the Unilodge property for A$41.8 million.

An offshore company, Thrushcross Ltd, had purchased the Unilodge building for A$23.5 million, prior to relinquishing it to Mara Inc.

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