In a bourse statement on Tuesday, the hospital operator said its indirect wholly owned subsidiary Pantai Holdings had entered into a conditional share purchase agreement with Khazanah's unit for the proposed acquisition.

IHH said the acquisition of Prince Court, a profitable private healthcare facility in the Kuala Lumpur city centre would allow the group to strengthen its position in the Malaysian private healthcare segment, and broaden its service offerings and leverage its wide network of hospitals.

"The Board anticipates that IHH will tap further into the medical tourism market complementing IHH Group's existing hospitals in the Klang Valley and may also realise potential synergies from the Proposed Acquisition," it added.

In a separate statement, Khazanah said the deal will be settled fully in cash, which IHH said it will fund via a combination of internally generated funds and bank borrowings.

Khazanah Managing Director Shahril Ridza Ridzuan said the transaction was in line with the fund's "refreshed mandate and provides Khazanah with the liquidity for our future investment capital requirements".

Khazanah anticipates the transaction will be completed in the first quarter of 2020.

Khazanah currently owns a 26% stake in IHH, after disposing a 16% equity holding in a $2 billion deal to Japan's Mitsui & Co Ltd November last year.

(Reporting by Liz Lee; Editing by David Evans)