Malaysia's Medini plans $994m public listing: report

KUALA LUMPUR - Government-linked township developer Medini Iskandar Malaysia hopes to raise 2.5 billion ringgit (S$994 million) in an initial public offering early next year, a report said Thursday.

The IPO, reported by The Star newspaper, would be the country's largest since palm oil giant Felda Global Ventures raised US$3.25 billion in June 2012.

Medini oversees a special economic zone in the heart of the ambitious Iskandar development project in southern Johor province.

Medini has said its site has an expected gross development value of more than US$21 billion over 20 years.

Company officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Iskandar is a huge development project intended to mesh Johor's economy more tightly with that of affluent neighbour Singapore.

However, recent reports have said Iskandar Waterfront Holdings, a privately owned developer, was planning to delay a US$300 million stock listing by a year to the end of 2014 due to concerns over government measures to cool property demand.

Southeast Asia's third-largest economy, Malaysia saw a flurry of big listings last year, led by Felda, that helped its stock exchange become the world's fifth-largest IPO market in 2012.

The pace slackened this year due to caution ahead of May elections narrowly won by Malaysia's long-ruling coalition, but has recently picked up again.

UMW Oil and Gas Corp raised US$740 million last week in Malaysia's largest IPO this year, following July's US$309 million listing of budget airline AirAsia X and leading Malaysian ports operator Westports Holdings' US$640 million IPO last month.

Sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad is expected to announce a listing to raise at least US$3 billion in 2014, according to unconfirmed reports.