KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – The government, developer Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (IWH), and its Chinese partner will not proceed with an equity deal for a planned mega project near Malaysia’s capital, the parties stated in a joint statement. The agreement between IWH and its partner China Railway Engineering Corp (CREC) to buy 60 percent of the equity in the Bandar Malaysia mixed commercial project for 7.41 billion ringgit (US$1.77 billion) expired on May 6 due to a failure to meet conditions, according to a statement released on Wednesday (Jul 14).
The terminal for the now-cancelled high-speed rail link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore was supposed to be located in Bandar Malaysia. The project, which is controlled by TRX City, a Ministry of Finance entity, was first announced in 2011, was canceled in 2017, and then resurrected in April 2019. According to the statement, the parties have been striving to identify ways to keep the cooperation alive. “Despite such attempts, the parties have yet to reach an agreement on the parameters of the extension,” it stated. READ: The 8-year timeline of the KL-Singapore HSR project from conception to completion
Last year, IWH-CREC, the joint venture’s developer, gave the government a 1.24 billion ringgit deposit and advance to begin work on Bandar Malaysia.
Following that approval, IWH decided to list in the first half of 2021 in order to raise at least 5 billion ringgit.
TRX City stated that it was still dedicated to the project and that “any future business and commercialization strategies will take into account market conditions as well as the national socio-economic agenda.”
In any future co-operation in the country, the China Railway Group will continue to work closely with TRX City, according to the statement.
The Bandar Malaysia project was started by former Prime Minister Najib Razak to help the scandal-plagued state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) with its financial burden, however it collapsed in May 2017 due to payment problems./n
