Sunland selloff: Co-founder Soheil Abedian in line for hefty $130m payday after sale of Gold Coast assets

The sometimes magic-carpet ride of one of the men who founded developer the Sunland Group looks set to see him bank $130 million or so over the next three years.

THE sometimes magic-carpet ride of one of the men who founded developer the Sunland Group looks set to see him bank $130 million or so over the next three years.

Charitable Austrian-trained architect Soheil Abedian’s set to be far and away the biggest beneficiary of a selldown strategy put in place by Sunland.

The move’s intended to see shareholders paid out the asset backing of each share, which at June 30 stood at $2.56.

The Iranian-born Soheil, who arrived in the Gold Coast in 1983 and with brother Sep sold Persian carpets, controls more than 51 million of the Benowa company’s 137 million shares.

Sahba and Soheil Abedian. Picture: Tertius Pickard

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Son Sahba’s also in line for some handsome cheques – he’s holding more than eight-million shares.

Whether father and son, and all other shareholders, get the full asset backing depends on the returns the company gets from selling off sites and completing existing projects.

They might, depending on profits from projects such as a big-ticket Mermaid Beach high-rise and on whether Soheil’s usually adept reading of markets continues, get more than they are bargaining for.

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If the three-year strategy is successful, all the portents appear to be there for the company that has given the Gold Coast iconic projects such as the Q1 super-tower and Palazzo Versace to be a shell.

Sunland is selling off its undeveloped sites including the Greenmount Beach Resort with the proceeds to be returned to shareholders. Picture: John Gass

Sunland’s intention is to return all its equity to shareholders.

That’s engendered a wide belief that the company will become a private one – something that managing-director Sahba has rubbished.

Sunland was set up by Soheil and friend Foad Fathi in 1984 and initially built luxury homes, including one for realtor Max Christmas and many for the late Mike Gore at Sanctuary Cove.

Foad left the business shortly after it listed in 2000 and Soheil steered the company into expansion that took in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and Townsville.

Sunland has enjoyed many highs, widely fluctuating profit levels – 2006-07 was an $88 million year -- and some where the ‘magic carpet’ has struck turbulence, such as an ill-fated Palazzo Versace foray in Dubai.

Then there were episodes like the 2006 arrival of billionaire James Packer on to the Sunland register and on to the board.

Sunland devleoped the Palazzo Versace hotel.

Three years later he suddenly exited his shares and his board seat, perhaps $40 million poorer.

Sunland, for the past decade or so, has spent $190 million buying back its own shares, which sank to 55c in 2011.

The Abedians have been big beneficiaries of that buyback by not selling into the buybacks – they have gone from owning 18 per cent of the shares to around 44 per cent without spending a cent.

At the same time, with some 190 million shares fewer shares on issue, the asset backing has accelerated, to the point that earlier this year it was far more than double the share price.

Hence the ‘strategy’ to address the imbalance between asset backing and share price, and it’s worked – the shares are up more than 90c since the move was unveiled.

Meanwhile, the charitable work of Soheil continues via the Abedian Foundation, work which includes funding Bond and Griffith uni scholarships.

He’s been salary sacrificing his $700,000-plus annual pay package to the foundation.