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, are the first to get regulatory approval for Malaysia’s new single family office tax incentive scheme.
Single family offices will enjoy zero tax rate on their investment returns under the scheme, which was unveiled last September. It only applies to companies that set up the offices in the Forest City Special Financial Zone in Malaysia’s southern Johor state, located about an hour’s drive from Singapore.
Securities Commission Malaysia has given the greenlight to CMY Capital and Yow Kee Family Office, the first of 19 companies from Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand that have shown interest in the scheme, Lee Ting Han, chairman of the Johor investment and trade committee, says in a statement on April 23.
According to disclosures to the Companies Commission of Malaysia, Chua owns CMY Capital and Yow Kee Family Office is owned by the family of Chong, a lawyer and businessman.
"Everything that the Johor state government and federal government has planned in order to ensure the success of Forest City as a special financial zone is right on track,” Lee says. “All related agencies are also working aggressively to attract investors to the southern state.”
Malaysia hopes to attract as much as 1.2 billion ringgit (US$272 million) of assets under management by 2030 through the scheme.