Iskandar Waterfront City gives holding company more time to seal agreements

PETALING JAYA: Iskandar Waterfront City Bhd (IWC), which closed at its intra-day low of RM1.55 yesterday, has agreed to give its holding company Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (IWH) another 60 days, or until Sept 4, 2017, to execute definitive sale and purchase agreements under a proposed restructuring exercise.
The restructuring exercise forms part of a proposed merger undertaken by IWH to consolidate the land bank of IWH Group and transfer listing of IWC to IWH.
IWC said the time extension is to enable IWH negotiate in good faith, the injection of 3,598 acres of land bank with an open market value (OMV) of RM4.3 billion with the respective vendors, namely IWH vice-chairman and director Tan Sri Lim Kang Hoo, Kumpulan Prasarana Rakyat Johor Sdn Bhd (the investment arm of the Johor State Government) and Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar.
IWC entered into a merger agreement with IWH on May 5, 2017. IWH was to have completed its negotiation exercise 60 days from the date of the merger agreement, yesterday.
The proposed one-for-one merger will see IWH taking up the remaining 61.7% equity in IWC for RM1.50 per share, to be satisfied via issuance of IWH shares on the basis of one new IWH share for one existing IWC share, to create a master property developer with over RM30 billion worth of land.
About 3,593 acres of land with an open market value of RM4.1 billion will be injected into IWH, bringing the total landbank to 7,400 acres in Kuala Lumpur and Johor for the merged entity. The proposed merger was expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2018.
IWC’s share price closed 3 sen or 1.9% lower at RM1.55, giving it a market capitalisation of RM1.3 billion.