This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on July 20, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Shares in Iskandar Waterfront City Bhd (IWCity) surged as much as 50% in early trade yesterday, as investors reacted to news quoting ministry of finance (MoF) special officer Tony Pua as saying that the government’s call for tender proposals for the development of Bandar Malaysia in Sungai Besi here has yielded no suitors so far.

His remarks renewed hopes that IWCity’s parent Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Sdn Bhd (IWH) still stands a good chance to participate in the Bandar Malaysia development. IWH is the largest shareholder of IWCity, with a 37.76% stake, according to Bloomberg.

The stock hit an intraday high of 85.5 sen before paring some of its gains at close yesterday at 74.5 sen, but remained up 17.5 sen or 30.7%, putting it among the top gainers on Bursa Malaysia. The share price climb gave it a one-day market capitalisation gain of RM146.37 million to stand at RM623.11 million.

The counter saw a total of 133.62 million shares changing hands, emerging as the second most active stock yesterday.

Ekovest Bhd’s stock also enjoyed a run-up in share price, surging as much as 18% to reach an intraday high of 77 sen yesterday. The stock ended the day 7.5 sen or 11.63% higher at 72 sen, with 165.34 million shares traded. It was the most active stock yesterday.

At yesterday’s close, Ekovest’s market cap stood at RM1.54 billion — a one-day gain of RM160.44 million.

In May last year, TRX City Sdn Bhd announced that the share sale agreement entered between the government through TRX City and the IWH-CREC consortium had lapsed due to the buyers’ failure to meet payment obligations.

IWH-CREC is a joint venture (JV) between IWH and China Railway Engineering Corp (M) Sdn Bhd (CREC). IWH holds a 60% stake in the JV, while the remaining 40% is owned by CREC.

The project was subsequently retendered, but little is known about the latest round of bids as the MoF has kept quiet on the process. However, on Wednesday, Pua said the ministry’s officials had told him that there were “zero” developers who had expressed interest in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd-linked project.

The 486-acre (196.68ha) Bandar Malaysia project was considered the crown jewel of the IWH-IWCity merger exercise.

Year to date, IWCity’s share price has fallen by 48%, while Ekovest’s share price has shed 22%.