RM100mil for Bangkok Bank HQ

It will be sited in Berjaya Central Park and be ready by first quarter 2014

KUALA LUMPUR: Bangkok Bank Bhd will invest more than RM100mil in its new headquarters, scheduled to be ready in the first quarter of 2014.

Executive director and chief executive officer Robert Loke said the new headquarters would be sited in Berjaya Central Park, Kuala Lumpur.

“It will be called Menara Bangkok Bank @ Berjaya Central Park,” he said at a signing ceremony yesterday between the Bangkok Bank group andWangsa Tegap Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Berjaya Corp Bhd.

Bangkok Bank has agreed to buy eight levels of corporate suites, together with commercial space, at the ground and mezzanine floors in one of the two Berjaya Central Park towers.

The ground and mezzanine floors, covering 6,000 sq ft, will house the banking hall. The entire eight levels span a total 99,950 sq ft.

Wangsa Tegap also signed another agreement with Vinci-MHPT Consortium of France to construct Menara Bangkok@Berjaya Central Park.

Meanwhile, the Bangkok Bank group plans to open four more branches locally in four to five years, with east Malaysia being one of the target areas.

“Each new branch will cost about RM1mil to RM2mil,” Loke said.

The group currently has four branches in Muar, Johor Baru, Penang and Klang.

The group will explore the possibility of selling the current headquarters once the new one is ready to be occupied.

Berjaya Corp chief executive officer Datuk Robin Tan noted that one of the oldest and most established financial institutions in the country had chosen Berjaya Central Park to site its new corporate headquarters.

“We warmly welcome Bangkok Bank as Berjaya Central Park's anchor owner and we are proud to have the name Menara Bangkok Bank for the building's 46-storey office tower,” he said.

Berjaya Central Park is a mixed development project located at the junction of Jalan Sultan Ismail and Jalan Ampang.

It is projected to be completed by 2016.