IWC and IWH to extend restructuring deadline to Sept 4

PETALING JAYA: Iskandar Waterfront City Bhd (IWC) and Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Sdn Bhd (IWH) have agreed to extend the date to provide the details of which land will be injected into the soon-to-be listed IWH (Newco) to Sept 4.

A company official told StarBiz that the extension by 60 days was done because there were many details to look into and these entailed much administrative work.

Its announcement to Bursa Malaysia yesterday said that this would enable IWH to negotiate in good faith and execute the definitive sale and purchase agreements with the relevant vendor or vendors under the proposed restructuring exercise.

The original lapse date for this exercise was yesterday.

It was announced to the stock exchange on May 5 that this land injection was planned with the implementation of the proposed merger scheme.

It was reported then that privately held IWH would make its debut on the capital markets through a corporate exercise that would see it being one of the region’s biggest owners of land in cities.

In a corporate proposal announced earlier, it was said that IWH would take over the listing status of IWC through a share swap between the two.

The ratio would be on the basis of one IWC share to be exchanged for one share in an enlarged IWH.

The Newco will also own up to 7,400 acres fronting the sea between Johor Baru and Singapore.

IWH at the moment is 63%owned by Tan Sri Lim Kang Hoo through his private company Credence Resources Sdn Bhd, while the remaining shares are held by Kumpulan Prasarana Rakyat Johor (KPRJ). IWH holds a 38.34% stake in IWC that has 1,072 acres mainly located in Tebrau, Johor.

IWH, on the other hand, has 3,900 acres of waterfront land, of which 80% has been claimed.

The corporate exercise proposes that all land outside IWH that is owned by Lim and KPRJ be consolidated in exchange for new shares in the Newco and redeemable convertible preference shares.

The amount of land to be injected into the Newco is 3,593 acres. Of the amount, Lim’s portion is 452 acres valued at RM2.6bil.