Asia's largest hospital operator, IHH Healthcare Berhad's share price rose in its dual stock market launch on Wednesday in Malaysia and Singapore.

More than 35.77 million shares were snapped up at 30 sen higher than a retail price of 2.80 ringgit on the Malaysian bourse at market opening.

In Singapore, the shares were traded at a volume of 8.843 million at 1.22 Singapore dollars per share from the 1.13- Singapore-dollar retail price.

The Malaysian state-linked company planned to raise 6.4 billion ringgit (2.01 billion US dollars) in the global offering of 2, 234.65 million shares on the dual listing.

With the listing, the company plans to add in another 17 new hospitals with 3,3000 beds by 2015.

It would expand its operations in the middle east to Egypt and Libya and grow its platform across China.

"We have eight clinics in China, they are based in Shanghai, Chengdu and Hong Kong... at the moment, we are entering into a contract to run two hospitals in Shanghai. We are also bidding for a private hospital deal, which the government is tendering out in Hong Kong," managing director, Lim Cheok Ping said at a press conference after the listing.

"We are also expanding beyond Turkey and looking into opportunities in Egypt, Libya and surrounding countries... we will continue work in progress and we urge share holders to grow with IHH for a long term investment," he added

IHH's listing was the world's third largest this year, making Malaysia a top spot for Asia's IPO to buck a trend of companies backing out of IPO plans due to economic uncertainties.

The institutional component of the offer was oversubscribed by more than 100 times and nearly to thirds of the shares were booked by cornerstone investors including World Bank's investment arm International Finance Corp.

The listing gives IHH a market value of 22.9 billion ringgit (7. 2 billion US dollars) and a reputation as the world's second biggest listed healthcare provider after HCA Holdings.

He said IHH has already spent about 75 percent of its 6.5 billion ringgit (2.04 billion US dollars) capital expenditure for the expansion, with the remainder of about 1.5 billion ringgit (472 million US dollars) to be funded via the IPO proceeds.

State investment arm Khazanah is IHH's single largest shareholder who controls 48 percent of its stakes.

The listing was part of the government's plan to divest state institutes to ramp up investments in the country ahead of an election due by March next year.

The announcement came after Malaysian state-owned plantation operator Felda Global Venture's oversubscribed debut on the Malaysian bourse and months after natural gas supplier Gas Malaysia's successful listing.

Malaysian bourse CEO, Tajuddin Atan said "its possible" to see more listing in Malaysia this year as he is positive that the IPO trend would continue.

Malaysian shipment giant MMC Corp earlier announced plans to list its subsidiary Malakoff Bhd later this year.

IHH has 30 hospitals worldwide in Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey, China, India, Vietnam and Brunei.

Its subsidiaries, Acibadem, Parkway and Pantai had already been listed previously.

This was the first time the group would be listed as a single, consolidated entity.