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Over the weekend, The Edge Weekly featured a 200-pager Special Edition titled “JOHOR READY FOR THE BIG LEAP”. Johor since the middle of last year had been the hotbed of investment be it property counters and the involvement in Data Centre Theme. Share prices with exposure to Johor were sure hits for these 18 months. The main catalyst is none other than the sheer amount of FDIs pouring into the state. In addition to the big policy moves to formulate and execute business-friendly decisions in spearheading the state’s economic growth.

Quoting Datuk Ho Kay Tat (Publisher & Group CEO of The Edge)

Publisher’s Note [THE STARS MAY FINALLY BE ALIGNED FOR JOHOR]

“In 2006, Malaysia launched the Iskandar development project to try and push things forward for Johor, but progress has not been as good as hoped and one reason is because of the cool response from Singapore.

But this appears to have changed recently, and there is now bullish optimism in the air because of closer government-to-government cooperation that has enabled things to move. The collaborative construction of the Rapid Transit System Link (RTS Link) from Woodlands in Singapore to Bukit Chagar in the heart of Johor Bahru and the creation of the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone will be game changers.

Another factor is that Johor’s Sultan Ibrahim is now the King of Malaysia and His Majesty will definitely give an added push to make things happen sooner, rather than later

For Johor, the stars may finally be aligned”

In a RHB Report dated 13 May 2024 Titled [Real Estate - JS-SEZ: The New Chapter of Iskandar Malaysia] mentioned a list of major landowners in Iskandar Malaysia. Further extrapolating from the list, the table below shows the share price performances of these landowners. 

To many investors' surprise, IWCity is the only company that printed a negative return on share price with a meagre -0.6% contraction. The average YTD return for companies with land banks in Iskandar Malaysia Region was +49.8% and even more on a 1-Year measurement. 

Surging property prices in Johor as seen from recent transactions with KSL, Paragon Globe, Crescendo and AME Elite are some of the anecdotal evidence that land prices are indeed moving up. Hence, one needs to take a closer look at IWCity as it lags behind its peers by a far margin. Hence, an opportunity for the late comers to catch up with very low downside risks.