Mi Technovation to buy RM332m Singapore building for EV arm

Mi Technovation Bhd, the Penang-based semiconductor equipment maker, has agreed to buy KHL Building, a vacant seven-storey light industrial building at 25 New Industrial Road, Singapore, for S$103.88 million (RM331.8 million). Its subsidiary Ohima International Pte Ltd signed the conditional sale and purchase agreement with Kim Hup Lee & Co (Private) Ltd on 30 October 2026. The building will become the global hub of the group's vehicle technologies unit, which develops electric powertrain systems. Mi's shareholders must approve the deal, which is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2027.

The property

• Location: Lot 6065C, Mukim 23, near the Tai Seng and Paya Lebar areas and within reach of Bartley MRT station
• Tenure: estate in fee simple, a form of freehold
• Land: 3,988.9 sq m (42,936 sq ft), about one acre
• Building: seven floors of factory and office space over a basement car park, 10,348.4 sq m (111,389 sq ft) of gross floor area, 47 car parks and three lorry bays. It was completed in 2002
• Zoning: Business 1, approved for manufacturing and factory production
• Status: vacant. The seller, a hardware retailer and property owner incorporated in 1960, used it itself

The deal

• Price: equal to the market value set by Savills and Laurelcap on 17 September 2026. The valuers' income method gave S$90.14 million (S$809 psf) and their sales comparison S$110.75 million (S$994 psf), and they gave more weight to the sales comparison
• Payment: S$1.04 million of earnest money was paid on 14 August. The rest of a 10% deposit is due within 15 business days, and the S$93.49 million balance a month after the conditions are met
• Conditions: shareholder approval at an extraordinary general meeting within four months; planning permission from Singapore's Urban Redevelopment Authority confirming the floor area; and the seller must repair the building's faulty fire protection system within 10 weeks
• Funding plan: about S$77.4 million of bank loans, S$25.44 million from the listing of its materials arm and S$1.04 million of its own cash. Stamp duty and other costs add about S$5.31 million, and the renovation has not been costed yet
• Gearing: rises from 0.04 to 0.21 times

Why Singapore

The vehicle technologies unit now rents a 568 sq m headquarters in Queenstown, Singapore, until 30 November 2028, and rents factories and R&D space in Hangzhou, Xi'an and Chongqing, China. It began earning revenue in the first half of 2026. The new building will hold a data and computing centre, a digital twin and AI centre, and the unit's product strategy, global sales, finance, legal and customer teams. Mi expects to save about S$330,000 a year in rent.

Part of the money comes from Mi Material Holding Ltd, the group's semiconductor materials arm, which listed on the Singapore Exchange's Mainboard on 28 October at S$1.80 a share and raised S$203.2 million.

The numbers

• Per sq ft of floor area: S$103.88 million ÷ 111,389 sq ft ≈ S$933 psf, about RM2,979 psf
• Per sq ft of land: S$103.88 million ÷ 42,936 sq ft ≈ S$2,419 psf, about RM7,700 psf
• Back home: Mi Equipment (M) Sdn Bhd paid RM17.5 million in July 2017 for a 2.02-acre site with a building in Phase 4 of the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone, about RM199 psf of land, our transaction records show
• Penang benchmark: Titijaya's DHL-leased warehouse in Bayan Lepas is selling for about RM998 psf of floor area (our report), about a third of the Singapore price