Kuwaiti fund to pour $150M into Malaysia IHH IPO

Kuwait Investment Authority will invest about $150 million in Malaysian firm IHH Healthcare's planned $2 billion IPO in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

The investment is poised to make KIA the second-biggest investor in the Malaysian healthcare firm's IPO. It will be the fund's biggest investment in an Asian flotation since it poured $800 million into Agricultural Bank of China's $21 billion offering in 2010.

With a heavy reliance on cornerstone investors and domestic demand, Malaysia has bucked the dismal IPO trend in other markets such as Singapore.

KIA, which manages $280 billion in assets, invests in big-ticket IPOs, but has been lately keeping its powder dry amid volatile markets, banking sources have said earlier.

Malaysia pension fund EPF will separately invest about $200 million in the IHH IPO, making it the biggest investor in the deal, said the sources, who could not be named because the details of the deal are not public.

IHH Healthcare, which is partly owned by state investor Khazanah Nasional Berhad, is the country's second-biggest IPO this year after Felda Global Ventures Holdings priced its $3.1 billion IPO late on Wednesday near the top of an indicative range.

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