Ex-beauty queen fights to stop Malaysian divorce with Laura Ashley owner
The Malaysian Insider – 9 hours agoRELATED CONTENT
- Ex-beauty queen fights to stop Malaysian divorce with Laura Ashley owner
A former Miss Malaysia is fighting tooth and nail to stop a High Court in Kuala Lumpur from hearing a divorce petition filed by her estranged tycoon husband, Tan Sri Khoo Kay Peng (pic).
Pauline Chai Siew Phin, the Miss Malaysia/International 1969, has now taken her battle to the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya with lawyers familiar with family law saying she stood to get less in matrimonial properties and other benefits if the matter was decided according to Malaysian law.
Khoo stands to lose half his fortune amounting to £500 million (RM2.75 billion) in the pending divorce if the matter was decided in Chai's favour in the English courts.
On March 6, the appellate court will hear Chai's application to stay the High Court decision last December which allowed Khoo to do away with meeting a conciliatory body in London to save the couple's marriage.
Her application to stay the exemption given to the husband was dismissed and High Court judge Rosnaini Saub had also stated that Khoo could file his divorce petition in Malaysia.
The judge held that a Malaysian court could hear the divorce petition since Chai's domicile followed that of her husband, who owns 40% of international brand Laura Ashley.
As a result, K. Shanmuga, one of the lawyers in Chai's legal team, said Khoo filed the petition a few hours after Rosnaini's ruling.
Court documents sighted by The Malaysian Insider revealed that the couple have a matrimonial home in Ukay Heights, Ampang.
Court papers filed by lawyers for Khoo also revealed that in October 2012, during one of their trips, Chai, feigning an illness, decided to remain in England in order to file the divorce petition there.
The document stated she remained there on a tourist visa.
British tabloid Daily Mail last year reported that Chai filed a divorce petition in London on grounds of "unreasonable behaviour" against Malaysia's 36th wealthiest man, according to the Forbes 2013 list of Malaysia's richest.
"English law works on the basis of a 50-50 split of assets unless there is a reason to depart from that principle,” Chai's lawyer Ayesha Vardag was quoted telling the UK Times newspaper, according to the Daily Mail.
"We have wealth here that was built up over 40 years and a wife's entitlement would be half of that. Any question of need is secondary," the lawyer reportedly said.
Khoo is the chairman of international investment holding company Malayan United Industries Bhd that is primarily engaged in retailing, hotels, food and confectionery, financial services and properties.
Besides a 40% stake in Laura Ashley that has annual sales of £286 million, the 75-year-old multimillionaire is also a director of Corus Hotels Limited in the UK. Corus Hotel Hyde Park in London is a four-star Victorian hotel.
Lawyers reportedly said that Chai, 67, could be awarded between £400 million and £500 million, according to Daily Mail.
Vardag also reportedly said that Chai was entitled to seek justice in the UK as the former beauty queen was living in England.
Chai lives in the couple's former family home on a 404ha estate in Hertfordshire north of Greater London.
Chai and Khoo, who married in 1970 and have five grown-up children, bought the estate in 1998 that reportedly has two custom-built lakes costing £60,000 each and a menagerie.
Besides winning the Miss Malaysia/International 1969 title, Chai has won other beauty pageants, including Miss Princess Malaysia 1969 and Miss Tourism Penang 1969.
Another big-money divorce case that has brought the spotlight on the wealth of Malaysia's rich is the RM400 million divorce case of Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud's son, Datuk Seri Mahmud Abu Bekir Abdul Taib.
Abu Bekir's ex-wife, Shahnaz Abdul Majid, testified last October that Abu Bekir was worth more than RM1 billion, when justifying her claims for RM400 million in their divorce settlement. – February 27, 2014.
