Malaysia power firm Malakoff to soon launch $1 bln IPO-sources

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Malaysian power firm Malakoff Bhd is expected to launch a long-delayed $1 billion initial public offering as early as this month as it has offered a shares to indigenous investors, people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.

Offering shares to bumiputra investors is a government-mandated prerequisite for most companies seeking IPOs.

The sources said Malakoff, a unit of builder MMC MMC Corp Bhd, had offered the indigenous investors 550 million shares, or almost a third, of the 1.52 billion shares it was listingrs and was now seeking to debut on the Kuala Lumpur exchange in April.

The offer price was not disclosed and the sale to the indigenous investors is expected to close on Friday, the sources said.

Malakoff executives were not immediately available to comment. The sources declined to be named as the matter remained confidential.

The IPO, which Malakoff postponed several times mainly due to construction issues at one of its power plants, would be Malaysia's largest since the $1.5 billion listing of pay TV firm Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd in 2012.

Bumiputra, or "sons of the soil", are majority ethnic Malays and other indigenous people in Malaysia favoured by a decades-old government policy in housing, education and business. (Reporting By Yantoultra Ngui; Editing by Miral Fahmy)