Of various yeasts tested in the conversion of fumaric to L-malic acid, Saccharomyces bayanus had the highest activity of fumarase. Cells permeabilized with 0.2% (w/v) CTAB for 5 min gave maximum enzyme activity. Under non-growth conditions, fumarase activity in the permeabilized cells was four times higher ( 271 U/g) than that of the intact cells ( 67 U/g). The proposed mathematical model for the batch production of L-malic acid was validated at different initial fumaric acid concentrations. The average conversion of fumaric acid was up to 82% and gave 21, 40, 83 and 175 mM L-malic acid from respectively, 25, 50, 100 and 210 mM fumaric acid.