That site, now Sunway City Kuala Lumpur, became the template for integrated, transit-linked precincts that feed Sunway’s core businesses of property development and construction while generating recurring income across an ecosystem of assets. Following a couple more rounds of name changes, the group is now simply Sunway Berhad.
The organising idea is simple — build for the future, then own and operate the platforms that bring a township to life. Founder and chairman Jeffrey Cheah frames it as the “Build-Own-Operate” model in which Sunway Construction builds, Sunway REIT owns, and Sunway Bhd operates. It allows capital recycling, tighter risk control and operating leverage through the property market cycle. Bandar Sunway was rehabilitated from an abandoned mining pool and transformed into a mixed-use precinct anchored by a university, a medical centre, offices, malls and hotels. Cheah says the aim is to create institutions that outlast business cycles and shape communities.
This year, Sunway celebrates its 51st anniversary. In its Golden Jubilee event in October, Cheah says of Bandar Sunway: “We rehabilitated a wasteland of abandoned and disused mining pools and restored a complete ecosystem with more than 30,000 trees transplanted and introduced some 150 species of flora and fauna here.”
In 2004, Cheah said of Sunway City Kuala Lumpur: “We transformed this former wasteland into a wonderland.” Today, Sunway City Kuala Lumpur serves a vibrant community of more than 200,000 people living, working, playing, and studying in a safe, healthy and eco-friendly environment, connected with covered walkways, says Cheah, adding that when he first came up with the vision for Sunway City Kuala Lumpur, those around him thought that he was “crazy”.
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Cheah trained as an accountant and began his career in finance before moving into other industries. He is methodical about governance and balance sheet discipline, and equally forthright about purpose. Through the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation, he channels profits into education and research. The foundation’s not-for-profit model underpins Sunway University, a network of scholarships, and partnerships with global institutions.
Sunway University hosts the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s Asia headquarters and the Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development, reflecting Cheah’s role on the SDSN Leadership Council. The group has also supported major academic and biomedical initiatives, including the Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre at the University of Cambridge, while Sunway Medical Centre develops teaching and research alongside clinical care.
From a single township, Sunway has grown into one of Malaysia’s largest conglomerates. Property development and construction remain core. Around them sit healthcare, education, theme parks, retail, hospitality and real estate investment, creating multiple earnings streams from the same urban footprint. The company’s early emphasis on master-planned, transit-oriented development now extends beyond Klang Valley to Johor and the wider region. Sunway is also building out a healthcare platform that pairs specialist services with training, digital systems and international accreditation.
What began as a quarry operator is today a diversified group known for execution and an integrated playbook that ties place-making to recurring cash flows. The ethos has held steady since the 1980s: to rehabilitate land, embed institutions of learning and care, and keep the value within the ecosystem. Cheah’s public goals are expansive, but the method remains grounded in the same loop: plan, build, own and operate, so that cities work for people and the businesses within them compound over time.
Integrated township
The first thing that comes to the mind of most Singaporeans when they hear “Sunway” is Sunway Lagoon, the theme park located within the group’s first township in Kuala Lumpur. (See sidebar) But Sunway and its township are so much more than just that theme park.
Sunway’s township is a long-horizon operating ecosystem where institutions of learning and care sit at the centre, and every component is designed to reinforce the next.
Education gives the precinct its weekday density and talent pipeline. Within the township, three local higher-educational institutions are connected. Most recently, its namesake university, Sunway University, has launched a new medical school, which, in years to come, will produce a new wave of doctors.
Healthcare is the other anchor. Sunway positions its flagship hospital as a teaching and research platform tied to its medical school and global partners, with a collaboration model somewhat similar to that of Harvard and Cambridge. Sunway Hospital is also expected to be the first private teaching hospital in Malaysia to support these new doctors.
Around the main hospital, ancillary facilities and senior living create a continuum of healthcare providers. Cheah describes the intent behind Sunway Sanctuary, the senior residences attached to the hospital: “If you live in Sanctuary and you press a button, help will come straight away … We will take you straight into the emergency if urgent care is needed.”
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Sunway City Kuala Lumpur is an 800-acre development and one of Southeast Asia’s premier tourist destinations
Townships are also planned with inclusivity and resilience in mind. In Kuala Lumpur, Sunway has created a community of over 200,000 people living, working and studying in a safe, connected and eco-friendly environment with protected walkways. That template is now applied to newer cities.
“We are now using Sunway City Kuala Lumpur as the model in developing our other townships,” he says of the rollout in Johor. In Iskandar Puteri, the location strategy is explicit: The city is a six-minute drive from the Second Link to Singapore via a coastal highway Sunway helped fund and build. This new township will mirror the success of its Kuala Lumpur playbook. While it will be larger in gross floor area (GFA), Sunway will also be introducing more concepts within the space. Some of the infrastructure it will include are a shopping mall, hospital, senior living space, theme park, educational institution and even a large driving track.
Sunway’s healthcare strategy is engineered around the township effect. “All of our operating hospitals are located in townships developed by Sunway,” the group notes, which confers advantages that are “difficult for competitors to replicate”. The same cross-sell logic applies to retail, hospitality and workplaces. By owning and operating across the value chain, Sunway can phase launches with demand, refurbish assets in downturns, and capture data and spending from residents, students, patients, and visitors who circulate within the same catchment.
In short, the integrated township is Sunway’s operating system. It is a connected city-within-a-city where universities, hospitals, homes, offices, malls and parks are stitched together, and where long-term ownership aligns financial returns with civic outcomes. As Cheah puts it, the ambition for Johor is to “replicate the success of Sunway City Kuala Lumpur on an even greater scale,” positioning the city as an international gateway for business and leisure.
Healthcare ascent
If the township is Sunway’s operating system, healthcare is the growth engine that sits at its core. The group’s hospitals are located within Sunway townships to capture resident demand, clinical talent, and referrals from education partners.
“My passion is in healthcare and education,” Cheah says. Pairing the hospital network with universities and research means “we have two top medical schools to back us”, he adds. The flagship Sunway Medical Centre (SMC) anchors his approach. “Our flagship SMC in Sunway City Kuala Lumpur is now the largest private hospital in Malaysia, with a capacity of 1,100 beds,” he says.
The group’s healthcare business has since grown. Sunway Healthcare Holdings (SHH) operates five hospitals with 1,662 licensed beds, supported by ambulatory centres, fertility services, complementary medicine, home care and senior living. Cheah pushes hard on standards and visibility, noting that the SMC has won several awards and is involved in several collaborations with top-tier medical schools, including Harvard and Cambridge.
The network is expanding in tandem with township rollout. Projects underway include new hospitals in Seremban, Iskandar Puteri and Putrajaya, as well as a fertility centre in Kota Bharu. Management targets more than 3,400 beds by 2030 as brownfield expansions and greenfield builds come onstream. The adjacency of senior living to clinical care is a design feature, not an add-on. Cheah shares that Sunway Sanctuary in Sunway City Kuala Lumpur is a “test bed” and that if this is successful, the group will replicate this model across all its other hospitals. “I think that Sunway Sanctuary is one test bed we want to introduce to the market,” says Cheah.
To fund and accelerate this growth, Sunway has set SHH up for a listing on Bursa by early next year. Before the initial public offering (IPO), SHH will undertake a one-for-nine share split to increase its issued shares from 1.2 billion to 10.9 billion, at an unchanged equity value of RM2.2 billion ($680 million). Sunway will receive the split shares as a special dividend from Sunway City, and proposes to distribute them to its own shareholders on a one-for-10 basis. The listing will offer up to 1.97 billion new and existing shares, or up to 17.2% of SHH, with Maybank Investment Bank and AmInvestment Bank as joint advisers.
Proceeds are earmarked on both sides. Sunway plans to pare borrowings, fund working capital, and cover listing expenses from proceeds of its offer-for-sale. SHH’s primary proceeds will be used to expand existing hospitals, build a new hospital, partially redeem its Islamic medium-term notes, and defray IPO costs. The group is also seeking approval for a lower minimum public spread of at least 20%, reflecting the retained strategic stake. “The group is planning to list Sunway Healthcare Group on Bursa next year, in what many analysts expect will be the largest IPO in Malaysia in a decade,” Cheah says.
Financially, the platform has momentum. As at 1HFY2025 ended June 30, SHH recorded a profit before tax (PBT) of RM35.5 million, down from RM49.3 million a year earlier, due to start-up losses from the newly launched Sunway Medical Centre Damansara and Sunway Medical Centre Ipoh. Excluding these two hospitals, the segment posted a 17.2% increase in PBT to RM57.8 million.
Sunway Medical Centre is the largest private teaching and research hospital in Malaysia, with a 1,100-bed capacity
Singapore push
Sunway has been in Singapore for decades, but it has kept a low profile. The Malaysian group has a trading business here for around 50 years and operates a prefabricated plant in Punggol for 30 years, supplying almost a third of all Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction (PPVC) for public housing.
In recent years, Sunway has increased its exposure to the city-state. In 2023, Sunway and Hong Leong Asia opened HL-Sunway Prefab Hub, the largest integrated construction and prefabrication hub in the city. Earlier this year, Sunway partnered with AsiaMedic to launch AsiaMedic Sunway Imaging, a state-of-the-art medical diagnostics imaging centre located at Royal Square in Novena.
On the property development front, Sunway participates through joint ventures (JVs) and minority stakes.
“We have expanded our ventures into Singapore for more than 20 years and have since become an active player in Singapore’s property market,” says Cheah.
The acquisition of MCL Land from Hongkong Land marks a new level for Sunway. “Our acquisition of MCL Land announced in September for $738.7 million is the group’s largest acquisition to date, and it has allowed Sunway to take on a more active role in Singapore’s property development,” says Cheah. The deal hands Sunway full ownership of MCL Land and its subsidiaries, including ongoing Singapore projects and Malaysian assets, providing “near-to-mid-term earnings visibility” and immediate access to approvals, landbank and a ready project pipeline.
Scale and visibility improve straight away. “The deal immediately boosts Sunway’s unbilled sales in Singapore from RM2 billion to nearly RM6 billion,” Cheah notes, underpinned by five ongoing Singapore developments and complementary assets in Malaysia. Since 1992, MCL Land has amassed “42 properties in Singapore and seven properties in Malaysia”. This portfolio gives it a base that Sunway aims to optimise and, where viable, redevelop for higher-value uses.
Strategically, the purchase formalises a market where Sunway has long operated but seldom led. The group expects to continue working with partners — a practical necessity in a capital-intensive market.
Cheah says: “Nearly all [real estate development] projects in Singapore are JVs, because they are huge. We will likely continue to do JVs, but maybe with different partners and take a more active role.”
Cheah adds that the Singapore real estate segment remains attractive for its policy clarity and demand drivers. “Singapore is a stable market that offers immense potential,” he says, driven by urbanisation and demand for “high-quality, sustainable living spaces from trusted developers”.
For now, the focus is execution, not empire-building. The group expects the acquisition to be completed on Oct 31.
“Right now, we are still digesting our MCL Land purchase, which is the largest acquisition in Sunway’s history, and looking at how to maximise our returns from this venture. As for expanding into other sectors in Singapore, it’s not something that we are actively pursuing for now,” says Cheah. The near-term emphasis is residential, where Sunway sees robust local demand and a fit with MCL Land’s core capabilities.
Sunway also expects cross-border interaction or cooperation with Johor, where its 2,000-acre Iskandar township is located, and is well positioned to benefit from the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ). The group’s idea is that an expanded Singapore footprint will complement Iskandar’s logistics, retail and lifestyle build-out, reinforcing two adjacent markets with shared labour pools and customer flows.
If the township is Sunway’s operating system, MCL Land is the local engine for Singapore. “By integrating MCL Land’s deep market expertise with Sunway’s track record in sustainable, integrated developments, we will build a robust platform to accelerate growth in Southeast Asia,” says Cheah.
The group frames this as a disciplined expansion, moving from minority consortium partner to an on-the-ground developer with a seasoned team and a replenished pipeline.
What analysts say
Maybank Investment Bank has a “hold” recommendation on Sunway with a higher target price of RM5.32 from RM5.31, following a “resilient quarter”.
Sunway’s 2QFY2025 core net profit of RM227.7 million, which represents a 12% q-o-q and 31% y-o-y growth, lifted 1HFY2025 core net profit to RM431 million by 24.3% y-o-y. The Aug 28 report by analyst Wong Wei Sum notes that the group’s profit and sales are in line with Maybank’s and consensus FY2025 estimates, as earnings performance is typically seasonally stronger in the second half. Wong notes that y-o-y and q-o-q earnings growth were mainly driven by its construction business, thanks to accelerated work progress on data centre projects. This also includes the launch of Otto Place in Singapore earlier in July.
As of June 30, net gearing improved to 0.39 times, from 0.41 times in end-1QFY2025. Sunway has declared an interim DPS of 4 sen for 2QFY2025, double the 2 sen in 2QFY2024.
Meanwhile, Hong Leong Investment Bank is upbeat on the group’s acquisition of MCL Land in Singapore. Analyst Tan Kai Shuen has a “buy” recommendation and RM6.00 target price on Sunway. Tan says: “We view the transaction as fair at book value, given MCL Land’s portfolio consists entirely of launched Singapore projects with robust take-up rates of 68%–100%, providing clear earnings visibility through to completion.”
Sunway is acquiring MCL Land at 1.0 times the adjusted net asset value (NAV) of $720.7 million, after factoring in the $100 million in cash extraction by the seller before the sale. Based on MCL Land’s FY2024 patmi of RM124 million, this implies a historical P/E of 19.4 times.
Tan sees redevelopment potential in MCL Land’s Wangsa Walk Mall, which, at only 0.9 times plot ratio, is currently underutilising the land parcel, compared to the allowable 4.0 times under the KL City Planning System. “Sunway intends to unlock this latent value by redeveloping the site into an integrated mixed-use development comprising retail, residential and potentially even a hospital component,” says Tan.
The way Tan sees it, the completion of this acquisition is just ahead of the planned listing of Sunway’s healthcare arm in 1Q2026. As the MCL Land acquisition is immediately earnings accretive, this will help mitigate the earnings dilution impact from the healthcare listing while providing a sustained earnings uplift in FY2026.
Research by Kenanga, on the other hand, is less bullish on Sunway, maintaining an “underperform” rating but raising its target price to RM4.56 from RM4.22 following news of the MCL Land acquisition.
Analyst Clement Chua believes the move would boost the group’s footprint in Singapore, with several near-completion projects at full take-up rates, thereby being immediately earnings accretive. However, Chua maintains a cautious stance, as he believes the share price is likely being driven by heightened expectations for the upcoming healthcare IPO and involvement in data centre development.
Chua likes Sunway for: having an eye for good land parcels, enabling it to execute quick turnarounds for its property projects; its growing private healthcare business backed by a pipeline of new medical centres within brownfield townships; a diversified range of investment assets that provide recurring income; and its well-established Sunway brand. “However, its valuations appear excessive following the run-up in its share prices. A strong rerating could be in a higher-than-expected listing valuation for its healthcare unit in the planned pipeline,” says Chua.
