Malaysia's Alliance up 3.8% on possible stake sale

Shares in Malaysia’s Alliance Financial rose as much as 3.8% on Monday after Singapore’s DBS Bank won central bank approval to start talks with a unit of Singaporean state investor Temasek Holdings for a 14% stake in the smaller lender.

By 9:40 a.m., Alliance shares were up at 2.3% at 3.97 ringgit.

The possible stake sale in Alliance is part of a larger deal where DBS, Southeast Asia’s biggest bank has agreed to pay $9.1 billion to Temasek for its stake in Indonesia’s Danamon bank.