KUALA LUMPUR:MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd Research (MIDF Research) has maintained its "buy" call on UEM Sunrise Bhd with an unchanged target price (TP) of 52 sen after the company said it is disposing of  its 72 freehold industrial plots in Iskandar Puteri, Johor for RM434.3 million to AME Elite Consortium Bhd.

In a note today, MIDF Research said it is not surprised by the land disposal as UEM Sunrise has been actively monetising its landbank in Johor.

"The land sales of RM434 million is expected to boost new sales of the company in the financial year ending Dec 31, 2020 ( FY20)," it said.

Nevertheless, the research house said the sales was within the company's management and its expectations, as it had targeted new sales of RM1 billion (which include land sales) for FY20.

"We make no changes to our earnings forecast as land sales are within management and our new sales target.

"We maintain our TP at 52 sen based on 75 per cent discount to revalued net asset value, and we maintain 'buy' call on UEM Sunrise as we expect earnings to return to the black in the second half of FY20," it said.

At 12.30 noon,  UEM Sunrise's share declined 38.5 sen with 1.4 million shares traded.

Last Friday, UEM Sunrise said in a bourse filing that its wholly-owned subsidiary, UEM Land Bhd and an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary Nusajaya Heights Sdn Bhd, have entered into two separate heads of agreement with AME units, Pentagon Land Sdn Bhd and Greenhill SILC Sdn Bhd to facilitate the transaction of the land sale.

The property developer said it would partner with AME to develop the area into an integrated industrial park development.

-- BERNAMA