Kim Eng Holdings, a Singaporean brokerage, surged to a record after Malayan Banking, Malaysia’s biggest lender, offered to buy the company for $1.79 billion to speed up expansion in Southeast Asia.

Shares of Kim Eng jumped 13% to $3.05 at the 5 p.m. close in Singapore trading, an all-time high, making it the best performer on Singapore’s stock exchange. Maybank, as the Kuala Lumpur-based company is known, slipped 0.1% to 9 ringgit, snapping a three-day gain.

 

Maybank 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 yesterday. That’s a 37% premium to the stock’s average price over the month to yesterday. Maybank is required to make an offer for the rest of Kim Eng, they said.