UALA LUMPUR: Shares of Iskandar Waterfront City Bhd (IWC) surged to a high of RM2.25, or 75 sen above the reference price of RM1.50 in the proposed merger with major shareholder Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Sdn Bhd (IWH).
At 11.29am, IWC was up 49 sen to RM2.25. There were 103.66 million shares done.
The FBM KLCI fell 3.09 points to 1,714.33. Turnover was 1.26 billion shares valued at RM972.97mil. There were 295 gainers, 398 losers and 371 counters unchanged.
The corporate exercise involved IWH taking over the listing status of IWC via share swap.
Perhaps triggering the surge was a clarification by Tan Sri Lim Kang Hoo, who wons 63% of IWH, that IWH will include its 30% stake in the Bandar Malaysia project as part of its proposed corporate exercise.
On Thursday, StarBiz reported the ratio is on the basis of one IWC share to be exchanged for one share in an enlarged IWH. The new-look IWH (Newco) will also own up to 7,400 acres of land fronting the sea between Johor Baru and Singapore.
IWH at the moment is 63%-owned by Lim 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 (RCPS).
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.
Upon the conclusion of the merger and restructuring, the expanded share capital of IWH is expected to be up to 4.3 billion shares, and if based on the offer price of IWC at RM1.50, the market capitalisation of the NewCo would be RM6.45bil.
The reference price for the exercise is set at IWC’s share price of RM1.50. The offer price for the share swap is a 14% premium over the 30-day volume-weighted average price of IWC shares.