Malaysia's Medini plans $800 mln public listing.

Government-linked township developer Medini Iskandar Malaysia hopes to raise 2.5 billion ringgit ($800 million) in an initial public offering early next year, a report said on Thursday. The IPO, reported by The Star newspaper, would be the country's largest since palm oil giant Felda Global Ventures raised $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 $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 $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 $740 million last week in Malaysia's largest IPO this year, following July's $309 million listing of budget airline AirAsia X and leading Malaysian ports operator Westports Holdings' $640 million IPO last month.

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