KUALA LUMPUR (April 8): Shares of Iskandar Waterfront City Bhd (IWCity) rose as much as 12% in active trades this morning, as positive sentiment over the possible revival of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) continues to improve sentiment surrounding mega projects in the country.
At 3.05pm, IWCity was trading up 6.5 sen or 8.67% at 81.5 sen, after 41.8 million shares traded so far. Its market capitalisation stood at RM681.66 million.
The counter has been more actively traded since Feb 21, as the government appeared to take a more positive stance with regards to the ECRL, lending hope to the continuation of other mega projects under review. Since then, IWCity has gained about 38% from 59 sen.
The ECRL, a project initiated by the previous Barisan Nasional government, has been halted since July this year and is currently being reviewed by the new Pakatan Harapan government, after what it termed inflated costs and unfavourable contract terms to Malaysia.
IWCity, meanwhile, was in the run-up to participate as the master developer of another mega project, the Bandar Malaysia mixed development, with an estimated gross development value of RM160 billion.
The halting of a series of projects linked to the Bandar Malaysia development, which include the KL-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) and termination of a 60% stake sale in the project to IWCity in July last year, has led to the project not moving forward. So far, no master developer has been named for the project.