NCT InnoSphere: 122 acres of factories at Bukit Kayu Hitam

Budget 2027, tabled on 9 October 2026, named NCT InnoSphere, a 122-acre park in Bukit Kayu Hitam, Kedah, as a hub for heavy vehicles, engineering, maintenance and logistics that complements industry in Kulim and Penang. The park is not new. NCT Group launched it on 29 September 2025, and its listed arm, NCT Alliance Bhd, took it over in January 2026. NCT Alliance's Bursa filings show what is planned and what the land costs.

The park

• Where: the Delapan Special Border Economic Zone, Bandar Bukit Kayu Hitam, Kubang Pasu district. It is east of the North–South Expressway, about 1.5 km from the Bukit Kayu Hitam border complex and 8 km north of Changlun. Delapan is a 4,400-acre zone master-planned by Northern Gateway, owned by the Finance Ministry
• Size: 122.41 acres of freehold land: 96.24 acres industrial and 26.17 acres commercial. The launch figure of 137 acres was revised in May and July 2025
• Mix: about 230 units. Knight Frank's valuation counts 136 factories (44 terrace, 20 cluster, 44 semi-detached and 28 detached), 46 shop-offices and 48 retail lots. The approved plans also include a duty-free complex
• Value and timing: GDV of RM604.6 million in NCT Alliance's December 2025 circular, against RM1.1 billion at the launch. Works began in September 2025, and the park is to be completed in stages by the fourth quarter of 2030. Building plans for industrial phases 1A to 1C were approved in July 2025
• Latest: in August 2026 NCT Alliance said work was "progressing as planned"

The land deal

• Owner and developer: the land belongs to Northern Gateway Free Zone Sdn Bhd. NCT's Bumi Binaria Sdn Bhd develops it under a joint development agreement signed on 15 May 2024
• Price: RM23 psf of gross land area. RM5 million is paid up front and on building-plan approval, and the rest as each phase receives its certificate of completion. For 122.41 acres that is about RM122.6 million (derived)
• Still farmland: at December 2025 the land was classed as agricultural, and the application to convert it had not been filed. Northern Gateway pays the conversion premium. Block titles and the surrender-and-realienation approval were still pending, with the deadline extended to 31 July 2026. NCT Alliance has not announced whether they were met
• Not a free zone (yet): a condition to gazette part of the park as a free zone was waived on 15 August 2025, at NCT's request, to give it "greater flexibility" in marketing the units

The prices behind the valuation

Knight Frank valued NCT's development rights at RM18.9 million as at 31 May 2025. With few deals near the site, it priced the units off Kulim and Alor Setar sales, adjusted downwards:

• Terrace factories: RM410 psf of floor area for 3,314 sq ft on 2,549 sq ft of land, about RM1.36 million (derived)
• Cluster factories: RM400 psf for 9,670 sq ft on 12,368 sq ft, about RM3.87 million
• Semi-detached factories: RM380 psf for 9,380 sq ft on 13,738 sq ft, about RM3.56 million
• Detached factories: RM345 psf for 12,877 sq ft on 21,339 sq ft, about RM4.44 million
• Industrial land: RM30 psf. That is based on a December 2024 sale of 28.15 acres in Bukit Kayu Hitam for RM35.78 million (RM29 psf), against RM43 psf in Padang Meha in November 2023 and RM40 psf in Kulim in September 2022
• Kulim comparison: double-storey terraced factories in Globalview Industrial Park, Padang Meha, sold for RM923,000 each in March and April 2025, about RM392 psf of floor area

Who is behind it

NCT Group was founded by group managing director Datuk Seri Yap Ngan Choy. NCT Alliance bought NCT World Sdn Bhd, which holds InnoSphere and the NCT Smart Industrial Park in Kuala Langat, Selangor, from related parties in a share deal completed on 6 January 2026. It added about 854 acres of land to the group, with a remaining GDV of about RM4.8 billion.