Retail tycoon Khoo Kay Peng may lose RM2.4b in divorce

By Boo Su-Lyn
March 17, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 Retail as well as road house aristocrat Tan Sri Khoo Kay Peng, who owns 40 per cent of general brand Laura Ashley, stands to lose half his fortune amounting to 500million (RM2.4 billion) in a pending divorce.

British publication Daily Mail reported yesterday which Miss Malaysia/International 1969 Pauline Chai filed a divorce petition in London final month upon grounds of "unreasonable behaviour" against Malaysia's 40th wealthiest man, according to a Forbes 2012 list of Malaysia's richest.

"English law works upon a basis of a 50-50 separate of assets unless there is a reason to depart from which principle,' Chai's counsel Ayesha Vardag was quoted revelation a UK Times newspaper, according to a Daily Mail.

"We have wealth here which was built up over 40 years as well as a wife's entitlement would be half of that. Any subject of need is secondary," a counsel reportedly said.

Khoo is a authority of general investment land company Malayan United Industries Bhd which is primarily intent in retailing, hotels, food as well as confectionery, monetary services as well as properties as well as is believed to have a net value of US$155 million (RM484 million).

Besides carrying a 40 per cent stake in Laura Ashley which has annual sales of 286 million (RM1.4 billion), a 74-year-old multimillionaire is also a director of Corus Hotels Limited in a UK. Corus Hotel Hyde Park in London is a four-star Victorian hotel.

Lawyers reportedly said which Chai, 66, could be awarded in between 400million (RM1.9 billion) as well as 500million (RM2.4 billion), according to Daily Mail.

Vardag also reportedly said which Chai was entitled to seek justice in a UK as a former beauty black was residing in England. Preliminary divorce hearings have been expected to proceed in a coming months.

Chai lives in a couple's former family home upon a 1,000-acre estate in Hertfordshire ! which is located north of Greater London.

Chai as well as Khoo, who married in 1970 as well as have five grown-up children, bought a estate in 1998 which reportedly has two custom-built lakes costing 60,000 (RM282, 869) each as well as a menagerie.

Besides winning a Miss Malaysia/International 1969 title, Chai has won other beauty pageants, together with Miss Princess Malaysia 1969 as well as Miss Tourism Penang 1969.

Another big-money divorce box which is resplendent a light upon a wealth of Malaysia's abounding is a RM400 million divorce box of Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud's son, Datuk Seri Mahmud Abu Bekir Abdul Taib.

The Syariah Appeal Court systematic a box to be retried final week.

Mahmud Abu Bekir's ex-wife Shahnaz Abdul Majid testified final Oct which Mahmud Abu Bekir was value some-more than RM1 billion, when justifying her claims for RM400 million in their divorce settlement.



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