IHH said lock in cornerstone investors

Blackrock Inc , Capital Group and Och-Ziff Capital Management Group
have emerged as cornerstone investors in the US$2 billion listing of
Malaysia’s IHH Healthcare Bhd, according to two sources with direct
knowledge of the flotation.

The other cornerstone investors are Singapore sovereign wealth
fund Government of Singapore Investment Corporation , Fullerton Fund
Management, AIA Group and Hwang Investment Management, the sources
said.

The dual listing of IHH, slated to debut on the Malaysian and
Singapore bourses by the end of July, comes at a time when a string of
initial public offerings have been delayed or scrapped because of
investor worries about Europe’s debt crisis and China’s slowing
economy.

“The profile of the cornerstone investors will give the IPO some
boost in confidence,” said one of the sources, who declined to be
identified as the talks were confidential.





“In good or bad times, it (the IPO) will still do well. It (IHH) operates in a defensive sector.”


IHH is the healthcare arm of Malaysia’s state investor Khazanah
Nasional Bhd. Its assets include Turkish hospital group Acibadem AS,
Singapore’s Parkway Holdings, India’s Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd
and Malaysia-based Pantai Hospitals and International Medical
University.

It is offering 2.2 billion shares, out of which 80 percent will be
new shares while the remaining secondary. The sale amounts to some 25
percent of its enlarged capital.

“The cornerstones will take 1.3 billion out of the 2.2 billion
shares available,” said the second source, declining to elaborate.

IHH officials were not immediately available for comment.


The dual listing would be the fourth-biggest IPO in Singapore’s
history and Malaysia’s second-largest this year after the planned
listing of Malaysian plantation group Felda Global Venture Holdings
Bhd.

International Financial Corp, a member of the World Bank Group,
has said it plans to take part in the IHH listing in a move to help
validate IHH’s emerging markets strategy.


Reuters reported earlier that IHH was also in talks with Kuwait’s
sovereign wealth fund on becoming a cornerstone investor.

Malaysia’s pension fund and Prudential Plc’s Eastspring Investments have committed to invest in the IPO.


State-owned fund manager Permodalan Nasional Bhd and the Haj
Pilgrims fund are also investors, according to the sources.

Malaysia has bucked the IPO trend in other markets such as
Singapore, where motor racing firm Formula One decided to postpone its
near US$3 billion offering due to volatile markets.

Shares of Gas Malaysia Bhd closed 10 percent higher on their debut
on Monday after a US$230 million listing, overcoming the negative
sentiment surrounding a slump in global market flotations.

CIMB, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank are joint
lead co-ordinators, while Credit Suisse, DBS, Goldman Sachs and Maybank
are joint bookrunners. Nomura, OCBC and UBS are co-lead managers. --
Reuters