PETALING JAYA, July 1 — The six-storey Quill City Mall, which will anchor the redevelopment of Vision City, has been sold to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) for up to RM1.2 billion, or RM1,561 per sq ft, StarBiz Online reported today.

The EPF accepted the offer to buy what will be its first retail mall in December 2011 and the signing of the sale and purchase agreement was formalised this March, it added.

The business portal also said that the sale is subject to certain “performance targets” such as physical completion within three years and a minimum occupancy of 70 per cent within 12 months of commercial operations, according to a RAM Ratings report in March.

EPF and Quill Retail Malls Sdn Bhd, the unit set up by Quill to undertake the development of Quill City Mall, will also enter into a type of sale and leaseback arrangement that would allow Quill to manage the mall under EPF’s ownership.

The plan entails Quill leasing the mall for three terms of three years each at incremental annual lease yields.

The business portal said Quill Retail Malls had earlier this year obtained Danajamin Nasional Bhd, DBS Bank Ltd and United Overseas Bank (Malaysia) Bhd to co-guarantee a RM700 million bond issuance for project financing.

RAM Ratings said in a ratings announcement last October that the repayment of the debt would mainly be derived from the sale proceeds of the mall to EPF.

It is understood that the mall has already pre-leased more than 50 per cent of its space and that it is scheduled to open by Hari Raya 2014.

There are plans to launch a residential component as well as an office tower at a later date.

The seven-acre mixed development long abandoned along Jalan Sultan Ismail to be renamed Quill City will revive what is widely considered to be one of Kuala Lumpur’s most prominent white elephants.