[ad_1]
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (IWH) plans to go public in the first half of 2021 to raise at least RM5bil after getting the go-ahead to start work on a mega project, its executive vice president said.
A 1.24 billion deposit and advance payment completed on Tuesday fulfilled its initial contractual obligations to the government to allow the group and its partner China Railway Engineering Corp (CREC) to begin work at Bandar Malaysia.
The megaproject on the outskirts of downtown Kuala Lumpur was initially announced in 2011, scrapped in 2017 and reinstalled in April this year.
IWH’s IPO plan has relied on the progress of the multi-billionth city development project, and after scrapping plans for a backdoor listing in 2017, it revived a plan to list on its own last year. .
Executive Vice President Lim Kang Hoo said in an interview that infrastructure construction and earthworks are planned for early next year.
IWH intends to submit its IPO application later this year and targets long-term institutional investors such as pension funds, Lim said.
He said IWH is valued at RM20bil, based on valuations of more than 4,000 acres of land it owns in the south of the Malaysian peninsula.
The plans are to raise a minimum of 25% of that value in the listing.
“This is a fully asset-backed IPO. Buying a stock is like buying a square foot of land,” he said.
Lim said RM3.7bil of the proceeds will be used to pay off debt incurred from the acquisition of 60% of the Bandar Malaysia project together with CREC from the Ministry of Finance.
The project is supposed to serve as a terminal for a planned Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail link.
The company also plans to expand to other parts of Malaysia and in Southeast Asia.
IWH has appointed CIMB to lead its listing, while ICBC, Bank of China and CITIC are bookmakers, Lim said.
(Reporting by Liz Lee; Editing by Jan Harvey)
[ad_2]
