Life Water buys lot next to its KKIP plant for RM15m

Life Water Bhd, the Sabah drinking-water and soft-drink maker, is buying the lot next to its own factory in the Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park (KKIP). Its subsidiary Green Borneo Industries Sdn Bhd, whose drinking-water plant is on Lot 9, Jalan 1F, signed on 7 October 2026 to buy Lot 10, Jalan 1F, Industrial Zone 4, KKIP Selatan for RM15 million cash, about RM115 psf of land. It plans to use the property as a warehouse.

The property

• Land: about 1.21 ha (12,100 sq m, about 130,200 sq ft or 2.99 acres) under Country Lease 015750508, Kota Kinabalu district, on a 99-year lease to 31 December 2110
• Building: a purpose-built office complex with a workshop, about 1,793 sq m (19,300 sq ft) and about 20 years old, which works out to about RM777 psf of built-up area
• Valuation: Knight Frank Malaysia valued it at RM15.0 million on 10 September 2026, using comparable sales and cross-checking by the cost method
• Title: still registered to the park developer, K.K.I.P. Sdn Bhd, because the transfer to the seller was never completed. The agreement allows the land to pass through the seller or straight from the developer to Green Borneo

The deal

• Seller: Kee Foh Haw Sdn Bhd of Tawau, a trading, diesel, transport, farming and property-letting company owned equally by Lo Soo Yun and Lo Su Qi
• Payment: 10% (RM1.5 million) at signing, including a 3% retention for real property gains tax, and the RM13.5 million balance within four months of the seller producing the transfer forms, with a one-month extension at 6% a year
• Funding: RM2.25 million (15%) from internal funds and RM12.75 million (85%) in bank loans
• Approvals: none needed from shareholders or the authorities; the highest percentage ratio under Bursa's rules is 7.19%
• Market value: Life Water shares were at RM1.72 at midday on 8 October, valuing the company at about RM805 million, The Edge reported

What KKIP factory land fetches

NAPIC's free Open Sales Data has recorded, so far, seven sales of detached factories on two to three acres of KKIP leasehold land in Kota Kinabalu district from 2022 to 2024, at RM82 to RM139 psf of land:

• Jalan Sepanggar, May 2024: RM12.8 million for about 2.12 acres, RM139 psf
• Jalan 1H, KKIP Selatan, February 2022: RM12.85 million for about 2.18 acres, RM135 psf, and RM8.15 million for about 2.23 acres, RM84 psf
• Jalan Sepanggar, March 2023: RM11 million for about 2.05 acres, RM123 psf
• Jalan Norowot, July 2024: RM9.6 million and RM7.9 million for two 2-acre sites, RM110 and RM91 psf
• Jalan Sepanggar, May 2022: RM11.5 million for about 3.22 acres, RM82 psf

The buildings on these sites differ, so the figures are land psf only. Last week DPI Holdings agreed to pay about RM85 psf for a vacant 2.05-acre lot in KKIP's Industrial Zone 12 (our report).

Life Water in KKIP

Life Water listed on Bursa Malaysia's Main Market in November 2024. In May 2024 another subsidiary, Life Water Industries Sdn Bhd, took over 8.16 acres at Lot 815, Industrial Zone 8, KKIP for a RM70 million bottling plant with a beverage factory, warehouse and office, which it said would create about 200 jobs.