KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 18): Offshore investment jurisdiction is not illegal and whether a company decides to invest offshore depends on its business strategy, Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) acting chief executive officer Zahrah Abd Wahab Fenner said in a Bernama report.

She said offshore investment was not something unusual and from SSM's record, the shareholders of over 200 Malaysian companies had a registered address in Cayman Islands, one of the world's offshore investment centres.

"Maybe the advantage of investing offshore is that such operations generate higher dividends, interest or tax benefit as well as better incentives.

"I am confident that if any company wants to indulge in this kind of undertaking, it must carry out a detailed study first," Bernama reported Zahrah  as telling reporters at the National Hawkers and Petty Traders Day 2014 celebration here today.

Zahrah said in legal terms, offshore investment jurisdiction was not illegal and there was no law to restrict such undertaking.

Generally, most companies involve in offshore investing are investment holding companies, she said, adding that local companies indulged in offshore investment must comply with the law in the offshore centres.