Malaysia’s Khazanah buys Turkish health insurer

Khazanah Nasional said on Monday that it has offered to buy 90% of Turkey’s second-biggest health insurer Acibadem Saglik ve Hayat Sigorta for $252 million in cash.

The deal marks the largest investment in a Turkish financial institution by a Southeast Asian-based firm.

Southeast Asia’s largest financial investors are increasingly buying assets in emerging markets around the world rather than in the more sluggish economies of the US and Europe where some were burnt trying to pick up bargains during the global financial crisis.

The purchase “allows us to tap into the attractive growth opportunities offered by the Turkish insurance market”, said Azman Mokhtar,...