Malaysia is not late in the family office race, and has what it takes to attract wealthy families to establish single family offices, according to panellists at Asia Asset Management’s (AAM) 13th annual Malaysia roundtable last week.
They highlighted that Malaysia has a strong common law framework, effective regulation, governance, the right infrastructure and talent.
Panellists at the session on “Wealth management and family offices: The new opportunity set” were Kevin Li, chief financial officer of Forest City – Country Garden Pacificview, Amelia Ong, executive director of OSK Ventures International, and Amardeep Kaur, general manager and head of investment management development at Securities Commission Malaysia.
The session on June 17 was moderated by Adelena Lestari Chong, managing partner of Paddee Connexions.
“The beauty is that Malaysia has all the ingredients, such as the infrastructure, the talent, and so on, but it comes with a more efficient cost structure,” Kaur said.
Last year, Malaysia introduced a tax incentive scheme for single family offices. The scheme, which was introduced last September, only applies to companies that set up single family offices in the Forest City Special Financial Zone in Malaysia’s southern Johor state, located about an hour’s drive from Singapore.
In order to qualify for the tax breaks, the offices must have at least 30 million ringgit (US$7.08 million) of assets under management, and commit to local investments of at least 10 million ringgit or 10% of their assets under management in the first ten years.
Two Malaysian firms, one owned by billionaire investor Chua Ma Yu and the other by David Chong, founder of wealth advisory services firm Portcullis Group, were the first to receive regulatory approval under the scheme.
Li said that besides its close proximity to Singapore, the Forest City has other features to attract investors globally.
“We are providing a coastal living experience. In Forest City, we also have international schools, hotels and two golf courses. On top of that, Malaysia has a growing population of professionals,” he said.
Ong said there are also growing investment opportunities in the country. She said that today, investors have access to a wide pool of opportunities across asset classes.
