KUALA LUMPUR: Eco World Development Group Berhad (“EcoWorld”) completed the last leg of its corporate exercise yesterday following a 20% placement of shares to institutional investors. Together with the earlier Subscription of Shares and Rights Issues with Warrants which were completed in February and March 2015 respectively, the total proceeds raised from the entire corporate exercise is approximately RM2.8 billion.

The book-build exercise in relation to the placement was completed on 7 May 2015, attracting strong demand from domestic and foreign investors. The order book was subscribed 1.41 times with significant orders from long-term institutional investors. Pursuant to the book-build exercise, EcoWorld will be issuing 394,044,000 new shares, representing approximately 20% of its issued and paid-up share capital.

“We are delighted to have received such strong support from long-term institutional funds for our share placement. The fact that we received 1.41 times subscription for a 20% placement of shares even under the present tough market conditions is indeed a strong vote of confidence in EcoWorld by institutional investors. We will certainly do our utmost to continue to strengthen the EcoWorld brand and deliver on all our promises to reward the faith which our customers and shareholders have placed in us,” said Tan Sri Liew Kee Sin, Chairman of EcoWorld.

“The Group has accumulated 5,245 acres of landbank with a total remaining Gross Development Value of RM61.2 billion to be developed. We have numerous exciting new launches coming up in the next few months. In Penang we have Eco Terraces, in the Klang Valley we will be introducing our luxury Eco Sanctuary township and in Iskandar Malaysia we will be unveiling Eco Tropics and Eco Business Park III in the Pasir Gudang growth corridor before the end of this financial year,” added Dato’ Chang Khim Wah, President and Chief Executive Officer of EcoWorld.

The 20% placement raised proceeds of RM638.351 million and will see 394,044,000 new shares issued at a subscription price of RM1.62 per share. This represents an 8.5% discount to the closing price of EcoWorld shares on 7 May 2015 of RM1.77 per share. The issue price also represents a discount of approximately 9.86% to the 5-day VWAMP of EcoWorld up to and including 7 May 2015 of RM1.7973 per share.

“Now that this last leg of our corporate exercise has been completed and RM2.8 billion has been raised, the Group is well placed to forge ahead with our growth and expansion plans to achieve the RM7 billion sales target we have set for FY2015 & 2016.” said Chang.