Authorities have received about 150 inquiries from companies about transferring their legal domicile status to Hong Kong after the recent passage of a law making it easier for businesses to establish themselves in the city, the treasury minister has said.

Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu also said on Saturday that about 180 family offices had been set up or expanded their operations in Hong Kong this year, putting the city on track to surpass its year-end goal of 200.

“Since the enactment of the relevant company re-domiciliation regime legislation on May 23, we have had a very positive response from the market, with inquiries about how [businesses] can do that and the detailed procedures,” he said.

“So far, in terms of inquiries, we have received about 150 of them, and in terms of downloads of the relevant information from our website regarding this new regime, the number is close to 10,000.

“So, I think all these are very positive in terms of how we have been drawing more companies to redomicile in Hong Kong.”

Manulife (International), the city’s biggest pension provider, said on Friday that it planned to redomicile to Hong Kong from Bermuda in November, after rival AXA announced a similar decision soon after the legislation’s passage.

Hui said that while the redomicile regime was for all eligible companies, insurance firms were particularly interested because of the large volume of business in Asia.