Hi Dragon, taking into account of the current stance by Ofwat, don’t you think that it is better off for Wessex to be disposed/monetarized (after investing in it for 20 years) and the money better spent on say developing the water industry in Johore/Malaysia (nearer home)?
Also the worst may be over for the ringgit and if it is pivoting, isn’t it the best time now to bring the money home?
I also worry about geopolitics in the western world where they can suddenly nationalize your assets.
What is your estimate of how much Wessex is worth, net, after all the loans are paid off?

Did you all miss this article?
https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/717736
CCCC to share ECRL's operational risks with MRL
The main contractor of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), China Communications Construction Company Ltd (CCCC), is going to bear the operational risks of the rail together with its asset owner, Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd (MRL).
MRL and CCCC will each bear 50% of the risk in this joint venture company or operating company (OpCo) if the rail operates at a loss. If the operation proves profitable, MRL will receive 80% of the earnings while CCCC will get the remaining 20%.
If they can do it with ECRL, there is no reason why they cannot do it with the HSR.
Probably they are still ironing out the deal.
Hope they will announce something soonest. Taking too long already!

https://www.barrons.com/articles/nvidia-ai-stocks-bargains-asia-f468c260
Barron's Nvidia Is the Pricey AI Play. These 7 Stocks Are Real Bargains!
Company / Ticker Recent Price Market Value (billion) 2025E P/E
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing / TSM $175.16 $747.7 23.3
Samsung Electronics / 005930.Korea KRW76,500 331.9 10.3
SK Hynix / 000660.Korea 215,000 113.7 6.9
YTL Power International / YTLP.Malaysia MYR5.03 8.7 12.6
Asia Vital Components / 3017.Taiwan TWD688.00 8.1 24.0
HD Hyundai Electric / 267260.Korea KRW263,500 6.9 19.4
Alchip Technologies / 3661.Taiwan TWD2,740 6.7 26.8

Timeline (recap from my posting earlier this year) - The proposed HSR line is 350 km long and is expected to reduce travel time between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to 90 minutes. It would start from Bandar Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur and connect to other cities such as Malacca and Seremban along the west coast en route to Jurong East in Singapore
Late 1990s - A high-speed rail link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore was proposed in the late 1990s but due to high costs, the proposal was shelved
2006 - YTL Corporation, operator of the Express Rail Link revived the proposal, with a projected speed of 250 km/h (155 mph). This was expected to trim travel time between the two cities to 99 minutes
2008 - the Malaysian government halted the project citing high-costs of over RM8 billion
September 2010 - It was first proposed by then Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak .
19 February 2013 - The Prime Ministers of Malaysia and Singapore agreed to proceed with the HSR project, proposal would be finalised by end of 2014 with a targeted completion date of 2020
6 February 2015 - Singapore had announced Jurong East as the final location for the high-speed rail terminus
2015 - the Malaysian government established MyHSR Corp to facilitate developing and implementing high-speed rail projects
19 July 2016 - Singapore and Malaysia signed a Memorandum of Understanding
Details including a 25-metre-high bridge link near the Malaysia–Singapore Second Link
The Government of Singapore required Raffles Country Club to vacate its plot as the site offers the "most suitable location" to run the HSR tracks after the bridge crossing and to place the tunnel portal leading to the tunnels that would take the HSR to the Jurong East terminus
17 October 2017 - the Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razak announced that the land acquisition process has begun in Malaysia for the project and also the station designs
5 April 2018 - MyHSR Corp announced the results of the selection process for the design and construction for the Malaysian portion of the project:
A consortium of Malaysian Resources and Gamuda would build the northern part,
A consortium of Syarikat Pembenaan Yeoh Tiong Lay and TH Properties the southern part.
The tender process for the Singapore tunnel sections was started in April 2018 with the start of construction expected in 2019
May 2018 - Mahathir confirmed that Malaysia would scrap the project, citing its high construction costs
5 September 2018 - postpone until end-May 2020
31 May - Singapore had agreed to the suspension until 31 December 2020
1 January 2021 - the prime ministers of Malaysia and Singapore announced to terminate the HSR project
At the point of termination, Singapore had incurred a cost of at least S$270 million.
29 March 2021 - Malaysia compensated Singapore S$102.8 million (US$75.36 million), with the settlement representing the complete termination of the project and bilateral agreement
Following Pakatan Harapan chairman Anwar Ibrahim's appointment as prime minister of Malaysia after the 2022 general elections, Singaporeans have again reportedly called for the Anwar administration to revive the project
11 July 2023 - MyHSR Corp called for proposals from the private sector and firms to be submitted for the development of the HSR project. The project was expected to cost 100 billion ringgit ($21 billion)
15 January 2024 - MyHSR Corp received seven proposals from private bidding groups. Bid selection and further negotiations with the Singapore government were expected to be undertaken in the second half of 2024
Source - Wikipedia
---------------------------------
Let’s discuss Cost consideration
2006 - YTL Corporation … speed of 250 km/h (155 mph) … travel time 99 minutes
2008 - the Malaysian government halted the project citing high-costs of over *RM8 billion*
In retrospect, why did the Govt disallow it when it was only RM8 billion?
Subsequently estimate cost went up tom RM72 billion (US$17.4 billion)
In 2023 July - MyHSR Corp says the project was expected to cost RM100 billion ($21 billion)
That means (RM100b - RM8b = RM92b) div by RM8b, div by 15 years = 76%
It means the cost inflated a whopping 76% every year for 15 years since the govt halted it in 2008, when the average inflation rate was 3.57% per year”
----------------------------------------------
KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail (KL-SG HSR) project might tally up to about RM70 billion, a notable decrease of around 30 to 35 percent from the previously reported RM110 billion, according to market insiders. "No definitive cost estimate has ever been provided for the HSR project.18 Apr 2024

Not sure how the HSR project will pan out, but this is the typical characteristics of how the govt of the day function. With minimal info from the Transport minister and not a squeak from MyHSRCorp.
“Evaluation of KL-Singapore HSR concept proposals to take two months, Parliament told” That was 3 months ago (4th Mar) and now it is already June. As usual “Still waiting for cabinet approval!”
While in Indonesia they already planning Jakarta-Bandung HSR extension to Surabaya.
And “China urges faster progress in billion-dollar railway link to Thailand (Jan 29th)
On another aspect, I still have a hunch that there may be a reversal of proposal with YTL taking the northern portion because they may build an elevated track over the existing ERL to cut land acquisition cost near the city. Hence the HSR is now expected to cost only RM70b. Also YTL’s ERL gets 30-year concession extension till 2059 (Jan 26th)
And Berjaya to get the southern portion cutting across Forest City in Johore
Perhaps they intend to keep you in the dark until suddenly one day a surprise announcement, to avoid unnecessary politicking.

https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-announces-financial-results-for-first-quarter-fiscal-2025
NVIDIA Announces Financial Results for First Quarter Fiscal 2025

Nvidia stock pops 9%, tops $1,000 after earnings beat forecasts, announces stock split and dividend hike
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nvidia-stock-pops-9-tops-1000-after-earnings-beat-forecasts-announces-stock-split-and-dividend-hike-202405060.html

Just a couple of comments from me.
I would like to point out that it is misleading to compare Q3 with the preceding Q2. Some are too quick to say that the results are not good because Q3 is lower than Q2.
I must point out that Q2 is for the Jan-Mar period when there is a long Chinese New Year break when businesses are closed for 1-2 weeks, so they are not comparable!
Secondly the dividends …
2022 … 2.0s +2.5s
2023 … 2.5s + 3.0s
2024 … 3.0s + ?
3.0s is just the 1st interim dividend. But you can see the dividend trend it upwards. (I am not unhappy)
On the whole, I feel the results are good.
I am however still disappointed with Wessex. My take is that it (over) ripe to be monetarized off (just like ElectraNet) to reap in extraordinary profits RMbillions (after holding for 21 years, bought cheap from Enron). More so when the MYR is so low.
The money can then be put to better use. Example if buy land like in Kulai estate, the price may have already appreciated by double and needless say, multinationals are hunting spree in Johore.
Thanks to Dragon for his research paper on “The Best Performing Stocks May Again Double Up in AI Driven Rally” I sincerely hope it will come true!
My take here is don’t laugh. I also believe it is better to stay with the winners. The not yet winners will take time before they really move up because their respective stale bulls need to liquidated first.
In a Super Bull-run, the tide will rise all ships, but I believe this ship will rise even higher because it is the leader of the pack!

Glad I bought Tenaga.some time back.
Bearing fruits now. Just beyond my expectations

A beautiful stock to hold!
After holding for 2 years now, prospective PE still below 10

Hi Dragon. I am happy you are now seriously analysing Genting & GENM. Thank you.
I also have Genting & GENM in my portfolio (for around two years now). But its share price really sulks!
I obviously would have done better if that allocation had been placed instead in the YTL/YTLPower as you already know in our YTLPower forum. But I kept the rule on not “putting all your eggs in one basket”
My displeasure with Genting is that I feel the management should prioritise their shareholders more than themselves and not do anything that is perceived to selfishly benefit its main shareholders.
One example is two AGMs ago, the CEO passed the microphone to his COO who explained in great detail how much TauRx will potentially bring in, but he failed to tell shareholders that it may be years down the road.
And while the share price spiked up, the CEO was quietly selling millions of share! I clearly remembered feeling let down and disgusted!
The other needless example is the injection of tons of money into once privately owned US Empire Resort into GENM over many years now. Anyway I hope you are right! Hopefully Empire may start contributing profits.
Hoping a better future share price of GENM and Genting.

You will know you are in a real bull run when even your taxi driver (now Grab driver) be telling you which stock to buy.
And all the restaurants in town are fully booked. YamSeng!

Hi OTB, is Bursa technically in a bull run yet? Am I wrong to say most investors of the last 20 years have never really seen the real bull run in KLSE/Bursa.
In a real bull run, can we expect YTL and YTLPower to double its current price one more time? Hehe!

The Sarawak project will use hydropower to electrolyze water and produce about 90,000 tons per year of green hydrogen, including 2,000 tons for local consumption. The rest will be converted to methylcyclohexane (MCH), a liquid hydrogen carrier, and exported to Japan. The project site is located at a large petrochemical industrial park with shipping and port facilities.
SEDC Energy will take the lead on power procurement and hydrogen production.

Hydropower dam development plans in Sarawak
https://themalaysianreserve.com/2024/02/27/hydropower-dam-development-plans-in-sarawak/

Not sure you all have forgotten …
YTL Power’s Singapore unit commissioned to build hydrogen-ready power plant worth S$800m
https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/698982
And the Green (not grey) hydrogen is going to come from Sarawak because Sarawak will have excess green hydrogen so much so they will be exporting to Japan
https://energynews.biz/sarawak-powers-green-hydrogen-future-with-japanese-collaboration/
Hahaha, reminds me of PMetal from 50s to RM7 between 2017 to 2022 a factor of 14x

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/05/07/climate/battery-electricity-solar-california-texas.html
Giant Batteries Are Transforming the Way the U.S. Uses Electricity
Look at the graphs between 2021 and 2024. I too was surprised by the amount of energy stored in large scale batteries
I believe YTLPower is also looking into power storage

For people who do not understand what 500MW is ….
“Nuclear energy has been powering the U.S. grid for the past 6 decades and produces around 1 gigawatt of power per plant on average”
… so 500MW = half a nuclear plant
But instead of nuclear, it will be clean solar energy (with ESG and Renewable Energy tax credits)
And good timing too … China’s solar panel giants say prices are near the bottom
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-05-08-chinas-solar-panel-giants-say-prices-are-near-the-bottom/

Data centers to run out of power in two years, says DigitalBridge CEO
https://www.lightreading.com/ai-machine-learning/data-centers-to-run-out-of-power-in-two-years-says-digitalbridge-ceo
Plenty of talk on Data centers, but it boils down to Power, Water and Land and YTLPower has it all.
“Amazon commits US$9b to double Singapore cloud investment” May 7, but S’pore may have to fall back on Johor. Either way YTLPower’s Seraya is in a sweet spot.
Ever wonder why Tenaga shot up recently. Also sweet spot of having excess capacity to supply data centers. You see the whole picture?

Hi Dragon.
Where do you get the statistics for foreign buy sell for individual stocks
Tq in advance.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/YTL+Green+Data+Center/@1.6236809,103.5297635,3a,75y/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipMp-Zwnlqu-zvSPUfXUyu9UexJEe8PxtKZEKYo!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMp-Zwnlqu-zvSPUfXUyu9UexJEe8PxtKZEKYo%3Dw203-h152-k-no!7i8160!8i6120!4m17!1m7!3m6!1s0x31d09d1840a2c3d1:0xe291b01863b9a454!2sKulai+Young+Estate!8m2!3d1.6232974!4d103.5336013!16s%2Fg%2F11f5tv70ss!3m8!1s0x31d09d251d1bf909:0x44b6784e2cee8f43!8m2!3d1.6232037!4d103.5299264!10e5!14m1!1BCgIgAQ!16s%2Fg%2F11szw1q9hs?authuser=0&entry=ttu
This pic is 25 June 2023

The GB200 is a key component of the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72, a multi-node, liquid-cooled, rack-scale system for the most compute-intensive workloads. It combines 36 Grace Blackwell Superchips, which include 72 Blackwell GPUs and 36 Grace CPUs interconnected by fifth-generation NVLink.17 hours ago. NVIDIA Newsroom

YTL Power is one of the first companies to use the fifth-generation NVLink-equipped, multi-node, liquid-cooled NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 rack-scale system.
It is anticipated that the YTL AI supercomputer would achieve more than 300 exaflops of AI computing, making it one of the fastest supercomputers in the world.

2017 Low - 1.99
2018 High - 19.20
2020 Low - 2.20
2022 High - 7.70
2024 Low - 2.65
To me, reward over risk appears good to me at 2.86

Compared to a year ago when YTLP was 60s and we had meaningful discussions, this forum is now filled with spammers with their own selfish intentions.
Dragon and OTB, is there another forum we can use?

The first seven proposals submitted recently by the private sector include bids from consortiums led by state-owned China Railway Construction; South Korea's Hyundai Rotem, a Hyundai Motor unit focused on railways and defense; and local conglomerates such as MMC, Gamuda, YTL, WCT Holdings and Berjaya, according to people familiar with the matter.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Transportation/Malaysia-revives-ambitious-high-speed-rail-plan-amid-hurdles

https://www.businesstoday.com.my/2024/03/11/ipp-ytlps-potential-value-on-dc-investments-yet-to-be-fully-priced-in-cgs-reiterates-add/

IPP YTLP’s Potential Value On DC Investments Yet To Be Fully Priced In, CGS Reiterates Add
CGA reiterates Add on YTLP with an unchanged SOP-based TP of RM4.50

From the trading done for YTL and YTLPower, you can see there are very big sellers (eg one of the many clients of UBS), but there are also many very big buyers (unknown at present because they haven't crossed 5% unlike UBS)
Fundamentals is more important in this case.

…. stressed the need for companies to continue investing in both physical and digital infrastructure to facilitate business flows.
….. YTL is ramping up its investment in infrastructure to capitalise on Asean’s artificial intelligence (AI) and data boom.
On the whole, Yeoh expressed confidence about the growth prospects of the infrastructure business, especially within South-east Asia.
“There remains a lot of infrastructure that needs to be built – the high-speed trains, as one example, has not been built yet. And on the digital side, the industry has only just started,” he said.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/international/asean/geopolitical-tensions-will-yield-economic-realities-ytl-s-francis-yeoh

*country's currently high reserve margins which now are at above 40%*
Such facilities are deemed high-value customers for TNB as they consume high volumes of electricity throughout the year, and thus serve to reduce the country's currently high reserve margins which now are at above 40%, not to mention help alleviate pressure on electricity tariffs by optimising Malaysia's generation assets better, the research house noted.
Please don't pose fake news!

I notice the selling is more on other heavy weights.
But YTL Corp, YTLPower, MCement appears to be holding relatively well.
Hopes it stay this way.
Thanks OTB

To OTB,
Can you comment on what is happening on Bursa.
Massive sudden foreign sell of -161m, -199m, and -318m the past three sessions

What is the effect of MSCI Malaysia Index adding YTL?


ChatGPT
The effect of MSCI Malaysia Index adding a particular stock like YTL would depend on various factors including the weight of the stock within the index, the trading volume of the stock, and the overall market sentiment towards the stock and the Malaysian market.

Here are some potential effects:

Increased demand for YTL shares: Inclusion in the MSCI Malaysia Index often leads to increased demand for the stock from investors who track or benchmark their portfolios to the index. This increased demand could drive up the price of YTL shares.

Higher trading volume: With increased investor interest, the trading volume of YTL shares is likely to increase, which could lead to greater liquidity in the stock.

Positive sentiment: Inclusion in a major index like MSCI Malaysia could be interpreted as a positive signal by investors, indicating confidence in the company's financial health and growth prospects. This positive sentiment could further support the stock price.

Portfolio adjustments: Fund managers and institutional investors who track the MSCI Malaysia Index may need to adjust their portfolios to reflect the addition of YTL. This could involve buying YTL shares, which again would contribute to increased demand and potentially higher prices.

Market impact: The addition of YTL to the MSCI Malaysia Index could have broader implications for the Malaysian stock market as a whole, as it may influence investor perceptions of the market's attractiveness and lead to increased attention from foreign investors.

Overall, the effect of MSCI Malaysia Index adding YTL would likely be positive for the stock in the short term, although the long-term performance would depend on various company-specific and market-related factors.

Never seen such crazy volume at 4.49pm. Amazing!!!

Correction.... the common folks in S'pore (who don't have cars) also have a choice of taking the bus to get to KL,
But the journey may take > 5 hours one way, including the hassle of get down, queue to get their passports chopped. Most likely day trips are out of the question.
Speed is essence!

Thank you Dragon for concurring with me.
What is Singapore's population 2023? Answer 5.9 million
Only one-third of S'pore resident households own cars – meaning for 3.9 million S’poreans, flying is the only way if they want to come to KL (and other places like Genting)
They have no choice so their favourite leisure is of course making day trips to JB
S’pore’s GDP is >USD400b and “private consumption expenditure contributes the largest share to GDP” (Singapore Department of Statistics)
So imagine the chunk of S’pore GDP flowing into KL and M’sia with the HSR
The S’pore govt has so far been very supportive of the HSR.
The quality of life and mental health for S’poreans will definitely improve with the HSR.
For Malaysian, forget about going there, unless you rich or go for business.

https://www.businesstoday.com.my/2024/02/20/ram-affirms-ytl-corps-aa1-rating-reflecting-its-solid-business-profile/
RAM Affirms YTL Corp’s AA1 Rating, Reflecting Its Solid Business Profile

Meanwhile, Malaysian power producer, YTL Power was reportedly partnering with U.S. tech giant Nvidia to develop an artificial intelligence infrastructure in the country. The AI development project is expected to come in at a US$4.3 billion (or RM20 billion) investment deal and is expected to be operational by mid-2024, according to Reuters.
https://www.marketing-interactive.com/malaysia-digital-economy-rm225-billion-approved-investments

HSR will give economy boost
https://www.nst.com.my/business/corporate/2024/02/1012685/hsr-will-give-economy-boost
New King Could Boost Johor’s GDP By 3% By 2029
https://www.businesstoday.com.my/2024/02/13/new-king-could-boost-johors-gdp-by-3-by-2029/

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2023/12/03/malaysia-records-26-million-tourist-arrivals-from-jan-1-to-nov-15-says-ministry#:~:text=According%20to%20statistics%20released%2C%20the,rest%20are%20from%20other%20countries.
“Singaporeans topped the list of 26 million tourist arrivals to Malaysia, according to the Immigration Department’s latest statistics recorded from Jan 1 to Nov 15, 2023”
…. most number of tourists were from Singapore at 12,645,364 tourists meaning on average 39,640 S’pore tourist a day (corrected for Nov15)
Most of them I believe are day trippers going over to Johore and returning back in S’pore the same day, despite having to brave the several hours jam at the causeway.
“For an HSR line to be viable … the passenger density per annum should ideally be more than 40 million people per annum.31 Jul 2023” = 109,589 passengers a day
So if S’pore tourist alone if they travel to KL instead of JB, you already have 1/3 to 1/2 the required number for our HSR to be viable!
“International tourist arrivals to Singapore more than doubled in 2023, surging to 13.6 million” What if some of the big spenders international tourist decide to hop over to KL?
And I am not talking about Malaysians going to S’pore because our MYR is so small, but for S’poreans and international tourist the fare should not be a problem.
That is just tourism. But the bigger picture is the social, economic/business (plus environmental) spin-off of the project.

“YTL is an extraordinary company, Malaysia is an important hub for Southeast Asia computing infrastructure, which requires access to land, facilities and power, and YTL could play a great role in that,” he told Reuters at a news conference.

About US$2.7 billion (RM12.42 billion) of the company’s revenues, or 15 per cent , in the quarter that ended in October came from Singapore, a 401 per cent jump from the same period last year. Singapore hosts many of the Asian headquarters of US and Chinese technology giants, and more than 1,100 AI startups.
15% of Nvidia's revenue from S'pore>
Due to land, manpower and power constrains, the only way is for S'pore to expand into the Johor-S'pore special economic zone (and Kulai is part of it)

"high reserve margins which now are at above 40%"
Such facilities are deemed high-value customers for TNB as they consume high volumes of electricity throughout the year, and thus serve to reduce the country's currently high reserve margins which now are at above 40%, not to mention help alleviate pressure on electricity tariffs by optimising Malaysia's generation assets better, the research house noted.
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.tnb.com.my/assets/newsclip/08092023a.pdf

I checked out Wessex accounts from 2007 till 2023.
£89m (2007) £95m (2008) £93m (2009) £112m (2010) £115m (2011) £93m (2012) £107m (2013) £169m (2014) £140m (2015) £164m (2016) £146m (2017) £133m (2018) £110m (2019) £66m (2020) £67m (2021) £-44 (2022) £-11m (2023)
Hi Dragon, Need some input. Can you please explain why Wessex’s profits rose to its highest at £169m in 2014, then dropped until £-44 in 2022 and £-11m 2023. What actually happened?
You have now projected it to recover to £100m profit. 👍 What are your reasons for this anticipated recovery? Thanks in advance.

Important to see who did the heavy selling yesterday
Daily Trading Participation (Bursa)
As at 05 February 2024
Foreign bought net 2m
Local institution bought net 58m
Local retailers sold 60m
Local retailers were the culprit yesterday.
Maybe they need CNY money 😀

Tan Sri in one of his interviews said the HSR project will be very profitable.
I have no doubt on his acumen and diligence in massive projects with medium to long term frame.
It is obvious YTL Constr will benefit, its Cement division extremely, its Hotels and Properties too, all will benefit.

Industry insiders say Malaysia and Thailand stand to benefit greatly from a KL-Bangkok HSR (Jan 8th, 2024)
….rapid growth of bilateral economic integration … cross-border production chains …
key driver … harness economic integration … Asean region and China ….
fundamentally accelerate the country's economic recovery … multitude of economic, social, and environmental benefits
Due to the positive correlation and interdependence between infrastructure investments and economic multipliers, large infrastructure projects are widely acknowledged as being essential to a country's economic growth
Greener environment, lower carbon footprint compared to taking a plane. ESG
HSR can increase tourism arrivals. Imagine S’poreans taking a 90 minutes journey in the morning, go shopping in Pavillion, have a good meal, return to S’pore in the evening, without the hassle of a few hour jam at the causeway.

For businesses, signing of MOU on the special economic zone (SEZ) with S’pore is a huge thing. No more holding back S’pore’s future on limited land and manpower.
With the HSR it actually indirectly extends all the way to KL.
Malaysia and Singapore are looking into implementing passport-free QR code clearance at their land checkpoints to support the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ).
I won’t be surprise with biometrics, facial recognition, AI, etc Malaysians and S’poreans may one day not need passports to travel, (just like once in the old days)

Not many Public listed companies can put in 20% equity for such a project and most financial institutions are wary, hence maybe either China jv partners can put in equity or provide loans at very low interest rates
Since there appear to be some urgency on China’s part in getting the Belt and Road Initiative rolling by 2027 or 2028.
The Kuala Lumpur-Singapore HSR is a key link (in future) to connect five countries in the region, namely, China, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore

China urges faster progress in billion-dollar railway link to Thailand
https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/698945?utm_source=Newswav&utm_medium=Website
China and Thailand must accelerate the construction of a planned high-speed railway linking the countries, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday, pushing an ambitious Southeast Asian network

“The Kuala Lumpur to Singapore Changi route emerged as the busiest international airline route, accommodating 4.9 million seats, according to OAG's annual assessment of the world's busiest flight routes between January and December 2023”
On average, there are about six million people flying between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore annually.
Building HSR is so expensive that even the heaviest routes in the world are loss making (if you go by fare x number)
China has built and put into operation more high-speed connections than the rest of the world over the last 15 years with 25,000km of dedicated HSR lines across the country. But they are all heavily subsidized by the govt.
So you can say ?no where in the world are rail projects such as HSR “fully private-sector-funded project” I believe “fully private-sector-funded” was a political gimmick!
In theStar Wednesday,12 Jul 2023
PUTRAJAYA: A Request For Information (RFI) exercise is being carried out to check the feasibility of implementing a public-private partnership (PPP) model for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (KL-S'pore HSR) project, says Anthony Loke.
Hence it should be PPP and not “fully private-sector-funded” right?

On the HSR alignment, you can check https://www.myhsr.com.my/kl-sg-hsr/project-overview
which almost the most as that in concept stage.
Putrajaya extends ERL concession period by 30 years after seven-year negotiations, says Loke _ CEO Morning Brief https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/698324
This of course is the Express rail connecting the airport KLIA to KL Sentral.
If you look carefully it passes near Bandar Malaysia before going to KL Sentral
I believe YTL may be planning to use some of the ERL tract for the elevated HSR to cut land cost.
So that explains why after seven years of negotiations, the govt suddenly agree to extend ERL concession with YTL by 30 years.
Sultan Ibrahim mahu HSR dihidupkan semula, lalu Forest City
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/689549
Forest City of Country Garden may be reserve land to create space for KL-Singapore HSR
If you look at the map carefully, the HSR alignment near S’pore may deviate slightly to the left instead of along the second-link.
If free land is provided especially if BLand gets the southern portion of the HSR project (reversal from previously) then the cost can come down further.
Also Spore may or may not use the Jurong Country Club and Raffles Country Club land, as S’pore has already been compensated.

Why are our prices so inflated?
On 17 October 2017, the Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razak announced that the land acquisition process has begun in Malaysia for the project and also the station designs.
So at least from 2017, all commercial development on lands earmarked for the HSR has already been frozen, ie they will not get any DO (development order)
On raw materials, you can check the price of steel rebar over the years, same with cement when our MCement was making a loss the past several years due to a slump in cement price, so much so that Lafarge throw in the towel.