KUALA LUMPUR (July 26): Shares of Iskandar Waterfront City Bhd (IWCity) rebounded 1.50% in active trade this morning afterhaving slumped more than 8% on Tuesday.

At 9.30am, IWCity rose 2 sen to RM1.35 with 5.42 million shares traded.

It was reported yesterday that eight companies have registered interest to be the master developer of the RM12.35 billion Bandar Malaysia project, according to Minister of Finance II Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani.

“I was informed by the treasury sec-gen (secretary-general) that there are about eight companies that have submitted their interest. By the end of this month or early next month, they will have to sit down and go through it," Datuk Johari said, referring to Tan Sri Irwan Serigar, who is also chairman of Bandar Malaysia.

“The board of 1MDB will look at the proposals and we will leave them to it,” he told the press on the sidelines of Invest Malaysia 2017.

Earlier this month, the request for proposal (RFP) process to select the master developer for the development was opened, after TRX City Sdn Bhd terminated the planned sale of a 60% stake in Bandar Malaysia to IWH CREC Sdn Bhd in May.

TRX City said IWH CREC, a jointly-owned entity between Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Bhd (IWH) and China Railway Engineering Corp (M) Sdn Bhd, had failed to meet the payment obligations under the share sale agreement.

In response, IWH CREC said the allegation was unacceptable, as IWH CREC had fulfilled “all the required payment obligation” under the agreement entered into on Dec 31, 2015.