Malaysia's Sunway REIT IPO to raise about $460 mln

* Total fund size 2.78 bln units, Malaysia's biggest

* IPO to offer 1.65 bln units to public/institutions * Listing in third or fourth quarter, latest

(adds details)

By Julie Goh

KUALA LUMPUR, May 10 (Reuters) - The planned listing of Malaysian property developer Sunway City Bhd's SWCB.KL real estate investment trust (REIT) will raise about 1.5 billion ringgit ($459 million), more than was expected in the beginning of this year, sources with direct knowledge of the deal told Reuters on Monday.

The REIT, with a fund size of 2.78 billion units, is set to become Malaysia's largest when it is listed in the third or fourth quarter of this year.

The listing comes as the global market for IPOs, which had shown signs of a resurgence early in the year, faces a spate of delays and downsizing. [ID:nN09165245]

Malaysia's IPO market appears to be unaffected, with news last week of shipping firm MISC (MISC.KL) hiring bankers for the IPO of its heavy engineering unit [ID:nSGE6450KP], while nursing school operator Masterskill saw its offering priced at the higher end of an indicative range [ID:nSGE64403D] and national oil company Petronas [PETR.L] is still on track with an IPO for its petrochemicals business. [ID:nWNAS8471]

The Sunway REIT will feature some 1.65 billion units for public subscription, of which 1.5 billion are for institutional and selected investors.

Another 100 million units are reserved for future issuance.

Sources told Reuters in January the IPO, which was expected to take place in the first half, could raise about 1 billion ringgit [ID:nSGE60Q0EV]

Bankers for the offering are RHB Investment Bank, Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX), HSBC (HSBA.L), JP Morgan (JPM.N) and CIMB (CIMB.KL).

Sunway said last Friday it would receive 2.7 billion ringgit in cash and about 1.0 billion units in the REIT for the eight properties it will inject into the unit.

The properties have a combined market value of about 3.7 billion ringgit.

Sunway will manage the REIT, in which it will have a 38.25 percent stake upon listing. The Malaysian property firm was not immediately available for comment.

Shares of the property developer ended up nearly 4 percent at 3.92 ringgit on Monday, outperforming the broader market .KLSE. (Editing by Valerie Lee)