Berjaya Corp Bhd (BCorp) intends to develop land it owns in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Johor, Penang, and Pahang, but will wait "for the right time," said its group chief executive officer, Jalil Rasheed, in a #BCorpUpClose tweet today.

"The advantage here is that the majority of it was purchased a long time ago, so we can wait for the right time to develop it," he explained.

Jalil provided updates ten months into his role at BCorp, describing how the group is currently structured and how it will be structured in the future.

BCorp, he explained, is an investment holding company, which means that its primary business is the ownership of other businesses. At the BCorp level, it does not operate any businesses.

"All our companies have their Boards and management who take care of daily operations. BCorp's corporate office function, where I sit, is responsible for monitoring the performance of companies, capital allocation, and new investments. The aim is not to have all our companies following a cookie-cutter approach. They each need to have their own culture and process," he stated.

Jalil also stated that the group has identified and focused on what sector verticals it wants to be in over the last year.

According to him, BCorp's business focus is on retail (non-food and food), real estate (development, investments, affordable housing), hospitality, and services (digital, gaming, financial services, and environment).

The property development business has been responsible for some of Malaysia's most visible and sought-after developments, including Seputeh Heights, Arena Green, Bukit Jalil Golf & Country Resort, The Peak @ Taman TAR, and Subang Heights.

The Ritz-Carlton Residences in Kuala Lumpur, The Link 2 in Bukit Jalil, KM1 East and West in Bukit Jalil, Jesselton Villas, and Kensington Garden in Penang are recent developments.

The hospitality segment owns and operates hotels located in Iceland, the United Kingdom, Japan, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

Last year Berjaya Land Bhd (BLand) entered into a share purchase agreement with Icelandair Group hf for the acquisition of a 100 per cent stake in Icelandair Hotels ehf through its wholly-owned Irish-incorporated subsidiary Berjaya Property Ireland Ltd.

With 1,471 keys across 14 hotels under various brands, BLand is Iceland's largest hotel operator. Its hotel brands include Icelandair Hotel, Hilton, Edda, Canopy, Konsulat, and Alda, catering to a diverse range of market segments.

Jalil said the ongoing pandemic has made the group realise that, while a diversified portfolio helps mitigate risk, having a focused one is also important.

"Past one year, we have been busy doing internal housekeeping and focusing more on divestment to make the group leaner and more focused. I envisaged my first year to reorganise, restructure, and get it focused. Year two and three will be growth and acquisition," he said.

"In future threads under #BcorpUpClose, I will zoom in on each business and give an introduction of what it does and what we are thinking about competition and operations. This thread was to introduce what we have first," he said.