MA Financial dives as Golden Ticket visa faces chop

Almost 40 per cent of assets under management at the company formerly known as Moelis Australia are connected to migration-related business.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil has described the Significant Investor Visa scheme as “a really big problem” in the immigration system. Picture: Joel Carrett/AAP

MA Financial, the ASX-listed investment group previously known as Moelis Australia, says it has diversified its business away from migration-related clients after shares fell more than 20 per cent on Monday.

The came after The Australian revealed the government would axe the Significant Investor Visa scheme in the next year.

Not a single applicant has been rejected on character grounds, designed to exclude criminals or those with suspiciously obtained wealth, in the last decade.

The scheme requires a minimum investment in Australia of $5m and confers an automatic right of permanent residence.

Cambodia’s corrupt Hun Sen regime are also alleged to have bought their way into Australia through the scheme, with at least 80 of the visas granted to Cambodian nat­ionals over the past decade, figures obtained by The Australian reveal.

The collapse in the MA share price on Monday prompted the company’s shares to enter a trading pause, with the ASX querying if any information had not been made public.

Shares recovered slightly after the pause was lifted late in trade, closing $1.11 – or 21.2 per cent – lower at $3.99.

In a market update, MA said it was a “highly diversified company” and 85 per cent of gross fund inflows into the asset management business related to non-migration investors.

In the first half of the financial year, gross fund inflows from international non-migration investors represented approximately $390m, up 53 per cent on the prior period.

However, 37 per cent of MA’s assets under management are from to migration-related customers, the company said.

MA has been at the forefront of the so-called Golden Ticket visa scheme, with wealthy foreign investors a major source of funds. The company had $7.2bn in assets under management.

The Australian, earlier this month, revealed Australia now ranks equal top – with New Zealand and Singapore – in a listing of 25 of the world’s most prized Golden Ticket programs when judged on time-to-citizenship and reputation.

Investors can gain citizenship even if they spend only 40 days a year in Australia. There is also no upper age limit. None of those who applied for the high wealth visa has failed the “character test” since the scheme was introduced in 2012; 23 were refused for failing to provide ­accurate information.