Malayan Banking Bhd., Malaysia’s biggest lender by assets, offered to buy Singaporean brokerage Kim Eng Holdings Ltd. in a deal valued at $1.79 billion, accelerating its expansion in Southeast Asia.

Maybank, as the Kuala Lumpur-based company is known, agreed to buy a 44.6% stake in Kim Eng from Taiwan’s Yuanta Securities Asia Financial Services and Kim Eng Chairman Ronald Anthony Ooi Thean Yat at $3.10 a share, the companies said in separate statements today. That’s a 36% premium to the stock’s average price over the past 20 days.

“Maybank has been trying to create a stronger regional footprint, and this is a short-cut way to its ambitions,” said Lye Thim Loong, who helps manage about $648 million at Avenue Invest Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur. “It’s a good move.”

A takeover would give Maybank stock-broking and investment banking operations in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. The deal would be the largest in the last 12 months in the Asian finance, broking and banking industry, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Maybank will be required to make an offer for the rest of Kim Eng, it said. The bank will also discuss with regulators whether it can make general offers for Kim Eng’s listed units in Thailand and the Philippines, Chief Executive Officer Abdul Wahid Omar told reporters in Kuala Lumpur today.