Maxis – Malaysia’s largest mobile operator – could return to the stock market as early as mid-November, reports Reuters today. According to sources, the operator plans to kick-start investor roadshows for the share sale by early next month, and book building for the institutional offering by 9 November, though Maxis declined to comment on this timeframe. The operator said last month that it plans to offer 2.25 billion shares or 30 percent of its existing share capital in the IPO; 27.7 percent will be offered to institutional investors and the remaining to retail investors. Share pricing was not disclosed but sources have said the IPO could raise as much as US$2 billion. Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs are joint book-runners for the share offer, according to the draft prospectus.

Maxis was taken private in 2007 and is currently controlled by businessman Ananda Krishnan (75 percent) and state-owned Saudi Telecom (25 percent). According to a recent edition of Wireless Intelligence’s Snapshot, Maxis had a dominant 36.6 percent share of the Malaysian market at the end of the second quarter with just under 10 million connections. It is just ahead of Axiata’s Celcom (35.7 percent, 9.7 million). DiGi – which is 49 percent-owned by Norway’s Telenor – is third (26.6 percent, 7.2 million). Reuters notes that the Maxis listing is one of many IPOs planned in Asia in the coming months as the region recovers from the global economic downturn and equity markets improve.