This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on August 18, 2025 - August 24, 2025

IT HAS BEEN more than a decade since the 72-acre i-City development began to take shape in Shah Alam, Selangor — an urban hub project that turned I-Bhd (KL:IBHD) from a home appliance manufacturer into a full-fledged real estate developer. As the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day — and neither was I-Bhd’s success.

Over the years, I-Bhd has steadily grown its property portfolio, but the journey has been anything but smooth. The Covid-19 pandemic marked a tough stretch for the company as business disruptions and lockdowns sent its profits to more-than-a-decade low. Today, I-Bhd’s story is one of resilience and recovery.

After having seen its net profit shrink 74% to RM369,000 in the financial year ended Dec 31, 2021 (FY2021), I-Bhd has since gone on to report solid growth in earnings.

Its net profit bounced back to RM27.22 million in FY2022, before retreating to RM12 million in FY2023. The group then regained growth momentum in FY2024, posting a net profit of RM29.18 million — its highest earnings post-pandemic.

The gains recorded over the past three years translate into an adjusted compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 131.7%, which helped I-Bhd bag the award for Highest Growth In Profit After Tax (PAT) Over Three Years under the property category at The Edge Malaysia Centurion Club Corporate Awards 2025.

During the three-year evaluation period for the awards, I-Bhd delivered a return on equity of 2.36% for FY2022, 1.02% for FY2023 and 2.4% for FY2024, which translates into a weighted ROE of 2%, according to the awards methodology.

Meanwhile, I-Bhd’s share price (adjusted) traded in the range of 22 sen to 29 sen between end-March 2022 and end-March 2025.

I-Bhd was listed on the Main Market of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange as Sanyo Industries (Malaysia) Bhd in 1969, just five years after the stock exchange was established in 1964.

I-Bhd founder and chairman Tan Sri Lim Kim Hong holds the largest stake in the company, with a controlling interest of 75.9% via his private vehicles Sumurwang Sdn Bhd and Sumur Ventures Sdn Bhd.

After selling his Dreamland mattress business, the Johor-born entrepreneur used the proceeds to acquire land in 1993 — laying the foundation for what would become the i-City development.

I-Bhd’s expansion of its i-City development in the Selangor Golden Triangle — which now includes Central i-City mall, Mercu Maybank corporate tower, a data centre, two hotels (DoubleTree by Hilton i-City and Wyndham Garden i-City), residential towers and theme parks — remains the cornerstone of its operation.

In the capital city, I-Bhd also owns Wyndham Suites KLCC, formerly known as 8 Kia Peng. The 50-storey serviced apartments tower also features I-Bhd’s newly launched WynSnow, Malaysia’s first real snowfall experience.

“Over the past year, we have restructured our growth engine to ensure we create an ecosystem that generates recurring income across our existing assets,” Lim said in a statement accompanying I-Bhd’s first-quarter results this year.

“The performance we are seeing today shows that our strategy is working — our earnings are broad-based, resilient and supported by both recurring income and market-responsive development.”

I-Bhd, which is also embarking on artificial intelligence and robotics, saw its net profit for 1QFY2025 more than double to RM9.96 million from RM4.07 million a year ago, driven by higher contributions from its property development and property investment segments.

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