KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 — Malaysian property developer Eco World Development Group Bhd said its unit has opted to list on the local bourse as an ordinary firm instead of as a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and plans to raise as much as RM2 billion (US$532.34 million) in an IPO.

The developer said in a stock exchange filing today that Eco World International has decided to abort a previous plan to list as an SPAC after being advised that it should consider a direct listing based on its strong property sales.

SPACs, also called ‘blank-check companies’, have no operations and go public with the intention of merging with or acquiring a company using the proceeds from the initial public offering (IPO). They are common in the West but are still rare in Asia.

Eco World International would have been Malaysia’s first property SPAC and followed the oil and gas SPAC IPOs of Reach Energy Bhd and Sona Petroleum Bhd.

Malaysia tightened rules on SPACs in 2013 to assure investors their money will be secure in the months or years that such shell companies might take to find an income-generating asset.

For the full filing, please click: http://bit.ly/1KYnQV4

— Reuters