KUALA LUMPUR, May 2: Malaysia’s largest lender, Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank), plans to announce a major acquisition on Monday amid speculation it wants to buy a strategic stake in Pakistan’s MCB Bank.

Maybank, which last month declined to comment on a newspaper report that it was in talks to buy into MCB Bank, suspended dealing in its shares until the close of Malaysian trading on Monday.

The announcement is due on Monday, a banking source added.

MCB is Pakistan’s largest bank in terms of market value and is worth around $4 billion. MCB shares closed higher by Rs6.88 at Rs421.88 on the Karachi Stock Exchange, while Maybank shares last traded at 8 ringgit.Maybank has lost 13 per cent of its value so far this year.

One dealer at a Malaysian brokerage said Maybank was set to make an acquisition in Pakistan, despite facing criticism over paying too much for a stake in an Indonesian bank in March.

Maybank shares were sold down heavily after it agreed to buy Indonesia’s sixth-largest bank, Bank Internasional Indonesia, for a steep 4.6 times book value.

The Karachi market was buzzing with speculation that Maybank could bid up to around Rs510 per share for an MCB stake of between 10 and 20 per cent. That would amount to almost six times book value, according to Reuters data.

Last month, Malaysian weekly The Edge quoted sources as saying Maybank wanted to buy a stake of 10 to 20 per cent in MCB.—Reuters