Qatar National Bank (QNB), the largest bank in the Gulf Arab region, is in preliminary talks to buy Kuwait Finance House's (KFH) Malaysia unit, the Qatari lender said.

No agreements had been reached over a potential deal and QNB would make any necessary disclosures to the Qatar stock market in the future, QNB said in the statement.

KFH, the largest Islamic bank in Kuwait, said in May that it was contemplating the sale of its business in the southeast Asian nation and a number of other investments as part of a broader restructuring of its operations.

A spokesman for KFH said it was "looking at several options whether to restructure, sell or merge" its Malaysian business and that "the decision will be concluded by the end of this month".