KUALA LUMPUR, 12 October 2009 - The Edge Malaysia's Top Property Developers Awards 2009 has ranked Sime Darby Property Bhd (SDP) the No 1 property developer in the country. The overall second spot went to SP Setia Bhd, which was in the number one spot the last four years.

Dato' Tunku Putra Badlishah received the award certificate from Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha at a ceremony held at Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

The awards rank property developers in the country from the consumer's perspective and developers were judged on both their quantitative (shareholders' funds, group pretax profit, revenue, gearing and cash plus cash equivalents) and qualitative (product quality, innovation and creativity, value creation for buyers, image and expertise) attributes.

Sunway City Bhd comes in at third place, retaining its position held last year. In fourth place is IGB Corp Bhd, the developer of Mid Valley City. Non-listed Island & PeninsularSdn Bhd (I&P), the previously listed IOI Properties Bhd and Bandar Raya Developments Bhd took the fifth, sixth and seventh positions, respectively.Eastern & Oriental Bhd is at number eight while in ninth spot is Sunrise Bhd. In 10th place is non-listed Bandar Utama City Corp Sdn Bhd.

Companies listed on the property sector of Bursa Malaysia automatically qualify for the ranking. Quantitative attributes of listed companies were sourced from published sources compiled by Interactive Data Systems Sdn Bhd, while non-listed companies were required to submit copies of signed audited accounts. A total of 15 submissions were received from non-listed companies this year. All companies were judged on the FY2008 financial results.

A panel of industry experts and veteran property developers judged on the qualitative aspects of the companies. The judges were Datuk Alan Tong, Datuk Richard Fong, Datuk Jeffery Ng, Datuk Teo Chiang Kok, Kumar Tharmalingam,Datuk Eddy Chen, and Au Foong Yee, executive editor and editor of City&Country and theedgeproperty.com. The results were audited by Deloitte Malaysia for the third year running.

For more details on the ranking read the Oct 12 issue of City & Country in The Edge Malaysia and view a video of the awards presentation night at www.theedgeproperty.com or click here to read The Edge interview with Dato' Tunku Putra Badlishah.