MARC has placed Sunrise Berhad’s (“Sunrise”) RM70 million MUNIF/IMTN and RM100 million BBA on MARCWatch with a developing outlook following an announcement of the appointment of the voluntary administrator on Broadfields II Pty. Ltd. (“BII”), a foreign subsidiary of Sunrise; which has triggered a technical event of default.

BII is involved in the provision of education services and is the operator for the American International School in Sydney. BII has been making losses since its inception in 1999 and has accumulated losses of approximately A$3.9 million based on its management accounts as at 31st May 2006. In view of the current state of insolvency of BII, the Board of Directors of Sunrise and BII respectively have decided to put BII into voluntary administration. Accordingly, the voluntary administration of BII is now in transition to a creditors’ voluntary winding up and Sunrise is in the process of getting bondholders approvals to rectify the technical event of default.

MARC will closely monitor the developments and will review its impact on Sunrise’s financial performance and current ratings. Any ratings implications arising therefrom will be advised in due course. Going forward, MARC views the voluntary winding up as positive and is in line with Sunrise’s direction to focus on its core business of property development.