Tracy Wong is a Partner in the Corporate Practice Group in Christopher & Lee Ong. She focuses on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, regulatory and trade, financial regulatory / FinTech, technology and telecommunications.

Tracy continues to climb the ranks in the Malaysian legal arena with her commercial understanding of the market landscape and the industry. Clients of the firm describes her as having "strong technical knowledge and an effective problem solver" and "provides sound advice that is both practical and commercial."

She advises on corporate transactions, specifically in relation to mergers and acquisition with a specialty in private equity transactions. She is also involved in general corporate and commercial transactions where she advises corporations on various matters ranging from the incorporation of a company to the regulatory aspects involved in the operations of a company.

Tracy spearheads the financial regulatory services and FinTech Practice Group of Christopher & Lee Ong, focusing especially in electronic commerce andpayment services, crowdfunding and peer-to-peer financing, blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Her expertise in this space extends to assisting both local and international companies on the legal and compliance issues, including applicable licensing and regulatory compliance, policies, by-laws and legal requirements in Malaysia in various regulated and unregulated industries.

In the regulatory and trade area, Tracy regularly advises multinational entities and foreign law firms on the regulatory requirements covering sanctions, WTOs, export controls, anti-dumping and safeguards, free trade agreements, Rules of Origin, amongst others.

Tracy is listed as a Recommended National Leader for Southeast Asia Trade & Customs in Who’s Who Legal 2022.

Experience

FinTech

• Advising a digital wallet subsidiary of an American social media conglomerate on regulatory and licensing requirements in its efforts to set up a digital asset exchange. We advised on regulatory requirements relating to compliance, staffing, governance, data protection, and other operational, regulatory requirements, preparation of application bundles, and are also involved with correspondence with local regulators.
• Advising an on-demand food delivery marketplace provider on with regards to the regulatory requirements on FinTech and payment services as it seeks to develop a new payment service in the form of an e-wallet business model.
• Advised various entities on the licensing requirements in Malaysia, especially in relation to e-money, merchant acquiring services and remittance businesses.
• Advising a leading global payments solutions provider on the introduction of an instalment enablement program in Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The advice included key legal considerations of the instalment enablement program from the perspective of Malaysian laws, including under the Financial Services Act, Central Bank guidelines, and Competition Act 2010 and its related guidelines.
• Advised a subsidiary of a Chinese gaming company on its application for an e-money licence in Malaysia.
• Advised a Malaysian bank on its proposed collaboration with a mobile platform in the money remittance business.
• Advised an American multinational financial services corporation on their acquisition of Southeast Asia’s largest e-hailing phone application’s payment entity as a merchant for transactions carried out by the local entities in Malaysia.

Mergers & Acquisitions

• Advised a private equity fund on its acquisition of a minority stake in a fixed price retail concept store in Malaysia that has more than 200 stores in Malaysia. The transaction was valued at almost RM 2 billion and involved the implementation of a complex internal restructuring exercise of the target company prior to completion of the deal.
• Advised a Malaysian pharmaceutical and healthcare chain on its acquisition of 100% of the shares in a private Malaysian pharmaceutical company via a competitive bid process. Due to it being a competitive bid process, the transaction was completed under intense time pressures, which also required a specialised transaction structure to accommodate the tight timelines.
• Advised a private equity fund on its acquisition of a minority stake of a Malaysian dollar-store concept retail outlet.
• Advised a private equity fund on its acquisition of a minority stake in a Malaysia’s largest retail hardware store and all subsequent follow-on transactions involving the same entity within the ASEAN region.
• Acted as the lead counsel for Double-V Series Sdn Bhd (privately owned vehicle of the founders of Munchy’s) and TAP Crunch Sdn Bhd (joint-venture entity between a private equity fund Tremendous Asia Partners and the Malaysian government pension fund) in the sale of the entire share capital of Munchy Food Industries Sdn Bhd, which is one of Malaysia’s largest snack manufacturers with operations in Malaysia, Indonesia and China, and supply chain to 50 countries worldwide.
• Successfully acted for one of Southeast Asia’s biggest private equity firms  in its acquisition of a majority stake in one of the largest and fastest growing premium supermarket chains in East Malaysia. This acquisition is crucial in expanding the private equity firm’s presence in the premium supermarket segment to East Malaysia.
• Advised a private equity fund in its subscription of shares in a Malaysian public listed company in the manufacturing of drinking water sector.
• Advised a private equity fund on the acquisition of a group of fine dining Chinese restaurants in Malaysia.
• Acted for the private equity arm of a leading Singaporean investment firm on their acquisition of an indirect stake in an integrated producer, distributor and brand owner of milk and yogurt products, as well as three of its Malaysian subsidiaries and two Australian subsidiaries (“Group”). This indirect acquisition involved a complex structure, including the purchase of secondary shares in one of the shareholders in the Group and the subscription of irredeemable convertible preference shares in two of the shareholders in the Group.
• Advised a private equity fund on its proposed disposal of an electrical construction company.
• Advised the owners of a digital advertising company on the sale of a majority stake in the company to a Japanese advertising company.

Regulatory & Trade 

• Assisted a Japan-headquartered manufacturing company in Malaysia on its appeal to and negotiations with the Ministry of International Trade and Industry on the classification of a product as a strategic item and assisted with the drafting of the internal compliance program of the company.
• Advised a global technology company on the legal restrictions in relation to the use of a licensed facility in Malaysia from a customs and strategic goods perspective which enabled to strategically plan its product flow and supply chain management.
• Advised an international oil and gas company on the export licensing requirements for the oil and gas industry.
• Advised a global agrifood business on the drafting of the standard of terms and conditions of sale for crude palm oil and addressed sanctions issues such as dealing with restricted countries and movement of goods to restricted countries.
• Assisted one of the largest plumbing distributors in conducting a verification exercise on Malaysian non-preferential certificates of origin and whether certain products that have been exported from Malaysia to the US are in fact of Malaysian origin as the country of origin would affect anti-dumping laws in US.
• Advised various companies on the import and export licensing requirements for the food and beverage industry.
• Advised an international chemicals company on the import licensing requirements of certain chemicals products.
• Advised a multinational commodities trader on its proposed expansion of commodities trading business to Malaysia.
• Advised a US fertilizer manufacturing entity on the import, export and customs requirements for the import and export of a chemical fertilizer.
• Regularly advised multinational entities and foreign law firms on the Malaysian customs and regulatory requirements.

Technology, Media & Telecommunications

• Advised a high-speed broadband network supplier on the rollout of its operations in Malaysia.
• Advised a major telecommunications company in Malaysia on a media-related agreement.
• Advised a major telecommunications company in Malaysia on the drafting of terms and conditions for its procurement division.
• Advised a government-linked company on its proposed rollout of nationwide broadband services.
• Advised a US-based company on the start-up of an online applications store in Malaysia.
• Advised a local cinema on the requirements relating to royalty payments for music played in cinemas.

Corporate Governance

• Advised a Malaysian commercial and retail bank on the revisions to its corporate governance framework in line with the update on the corporate governance guidelines.
• Advised on the setup of an international commercial bank in Malaysia, including advising on the incorporation of the company and the drafting of internal banking policies.
• Advised Malaysian subsidiaries of international commercial banks on corporate governance and compliance requirements.
• Regularly advised clients on various regulatory issues, such as foreign exchange administration issues, advice on the provision of financial services, foreign investments etc.

Memberships / Directorships

• Member, Malaysian Bar
• Member, Kuala Lumpur Bar

Publications

• Author, "The Industrial Design (Amendment) Act 2013 – Monetising Industrial Design Rights", The Sun (Malaysia)
• Co-author, "The Trans-Pacific Partnership and Malaysia", Global Trade and Customs Journal, Volume 11, Issue 4