The biggest IPO so far

The headline business news is that Malaysia to grab Asia IPO top spot with US$2b IHH listing

KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 — Malaysia launched today the US$2 billion (RM6 billion) initial public offering of state-backed hospital operator IHH Healthcare Bhd, marking the third biggest listing of the year globally and cementing its status as Asia’s top IPO destination for 2012.
The sale of shares in IHH follows the US$3 billion listing on the Malaysian bourse last week of palm oil firm Felda Global Ventures Holding, which was the world’s biggest IPO of the year after Facebook Inc.
The IHH IPO prospectus was launched at an event in Kuala Lumpur, continuing Prime Minister Najib Razak’s drive to monetise state-linked assets and boost the economic feel-good factor ahead of a general election due by next March.
His brother, CIMB Group Chief Executive Nazir Razak whose investment bank is the lead global co-ordinator of the listing, said, based on an indicative IPO price of RM2.85 per share, IHH’s market value of RM22.9 billion would place it second to HCA Holdings — the world’s largest listed healthcare provider.

To “monetize state-linked assets” basically means the IPO will raise money, to the tune of billions of ringgit, for Khazanah, which is linked to the Government of the day (after all the PM and Ministers are on the BOD). Khazanah’s IHH assets in the region are currently investments in Singapore’s Parkway Holdings, Malaysia-based Pantai Hospitals and International Medical University.
What Khazanah will do with the billions raised one can only speculate. How this will fit into any “Healthcare transformation” plans for the country are also unknown. I can only guess that big business is not in the business of charity.