Malaysia's Astro opens up 1.0 percent in IPO

Malaysia's biggest pay-TV firm Astro opened just 1.0 per cent up on its IPO price on Friday, below expectations for its return to the bourse in Southeast Asia's third-largest share sale this year. Astro shares opened at 3.03 ringgit (US$1.00) on the Kuala Lumpur exchange, only slightly higher than the 3.00 ringgit offer price set for the US$1.5 billion flotation. Analysts had expected the stock to open up to 10 per cent above its offer price. Astro dominates the nation's pay-to-view television market, reaching millions of homes and offering more than 150 different channels. The share offer was launched despite a volatile global economy that has forced the delay of other major IPOs in Asia, including a planned US$2.5 billion Formula One listing in Singapore. 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. Astro was delisted from the Malaysian stock exchange following a 2010 buyout by Malaysia's second richest man, Ananda Krishnan and Khazanah Nasional, the investment arm of the Malaysian government. When the company was taken private it was valued at US$2.6 billion.