Khoo Kay Peng

Tan Sri Khoo Kay Peng (; born December 1939) is a Malaysian Chinese businessman. He is the chairman and a major shareholder of Laura Ashley plc, and the owner of MUI Group.

Early life Khoo Kay Peng was born in December 1939 in Batu Pahat, Johor.

Career Khoo was mentored by Khoo Teck Puat, who founded Malayan Banking (now Maybank) in 1960. Khoo joined the new bank and soon became a manager. In 1965, he was seconded to Bank Bumiputra, and quickly rose to a senior position. In his ten years there, he built relationships with Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Robert Kuok and Tan Koon Swan.

He left in 1976 to start his own business, developing property in Kuala Lumpur with a loan from Southern Banking, which made him a millionaire. In the same year, he bought a major stake in MUI Group, then a manufacturer of toothbrushes and household utensils, and used it as a vehicle for a series of corporate takeovers, growing MUI to a $91 million pre-tax profit in 1984.

He is the owner of MUI Group, a conglomerate which includes "retail, hotel, food and financial-services interests in Asia, Australia, the U.S. and the U.K." according to Forbes. He also owned 44% of Laura Ashley plc and serves as its chairman. He is a director of Corus Hotels.

He is the 44th richest person in Malaysia, with an estimated wealth of US$300 million according to Forbes.

Personal life Khoo is a born-again Christian. None of his children holds Malaysian citizenship or worked in Malaysia as all of them holds other countries' citizenship and resides in different locations in Singapore, Canada, England and Argentina. His eldest children, Alfred born with Tourette's syndrome while his two other children, Angelina and Alex have autism and Asperger's syndrome respectively.

He and his wife began divorce proceedings in 2013 after 43 years of marriage, with Chai citing the reason for the divorcement was due to Khoo's unreasonable behaviour.

He resides in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Chai, who left Malaysia in 1980 to live in Australia, later in Canada before moved to England, renounced her Malaysian citizenship in 2009, claiming that she has "only one friend in Malaysia" and has "no interest" in her home country. Khoo later said that his marriage with Chai was a big mistake to him. He said: "Her (Chai's) behaviour and demeanour had changed. Now, I know who the real person (Chai) is, after 43 years of marriage".

Khoo's daughter, Angeline married Jedidiah Francis, a Caribbean-born data scientist of Indian descent. Due to cultural differences, he refused to give his blessings to them to get married, resulting Khoo and his daughter ended their relationship and no longer talking to each other. Khoo insisted that he would not accept Francis as his son-in-law.