Satellite broadcaster Astro has attracted strong interest from institutional investors for its US$1.5 billion initial public offering in Malaysia, Dow Jones Newswires said today.

The appetite for the firm controlled by Malaysia’s second richest man Ananda Krishnan comes several months after the country hosted two of the biggest IPOs of the year, shortly behind Facebook and Japan Airlines.

Dow Jones said shares allocated to institutional investors had been oversubscribed less than a day into order-taking today, citing three people familiar with the share sale.

Astro, which will launch its prospectus on Friday, dominates Malaysia’s pay-to-view television market, reaching millions of homes with more than 150 different channels.

US hedge fund Och-Ziff Capital Management and one of Malaysia’s richest banking families Hong Leong are among 16 cornerstone investors who have committed to buying nearly a third of the institutional tranche of shares on offer.

The company is planning to sell 1.5 billion shares, of which 31.2 percent are new shares and 68.8 percent are existing shares, in a price range of RM2.70-RM3.00 (US$0.88-US$0.98) each, according to a term sheet.

Institutional investors are allocated 1.26 billion shares and the remaining 259.9 million shares will be sold to the public.

Astro is scheduled to price the offering on Oct 3 and list on Malaysia’s stock exchange on Oct 19, the term sheet said according to Dow Jones.

Palm oil giant Felda Global Ventures Holdings raised US$3 billion on the Kuala Lumpur exchange in June, followed by the US$2 billion dual listing of IHH, Asia’s biggest hospital operator, in Malaysia and neighbouring Singapore.

Only the massive US$16 billion and US$8.5 billion IPOs of social media leader Facebook and Japan Airlines respectively earned more this year.

- AFP