Hong Kong New Fund Structures

Su Cheen is a partner in Deacons Financial Services practice.

Su Cheen focuses her practice on assisting clients on various aspects of private and public investment funds, from fund structuring, formation, marketing as well as on-going compliance issues. Su Cheen has represented numerous international and local fund houses in establishing their funds and getting them authorised by the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong.

She has advised on a broad range of funds authorisation ranging from plain vanilla equity and bond funds, UCITS to exchange traded funds (ETFs). She is also experienced in the MPF sphere, advising on establishment and authorisation of MPF schemes, approved pooled investment funds (APIFs) and index-tracking collective investment schemes (ITCIS) as well as post-authorisation and regulatory issues. Her private funds experience includes advising on the structuring and establishment of open-ended and closed-ended hedge funds and private equity funds as well as on legal issues concerning side letters, ISDA and prime brokerage agreements.

Su Cheen is a Member of the Regulatory Committee of the Hong Kong Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (HKVCA).

Darren Bowdern, Partner, Tax, Hong Kong Head of Alternative Investments, KPMG

Darren is a partner in KPMG’s Hong Kong tax practice. He has more than 25 years’ experience of serving institutions in the asset management, private equity and financial services sector in Hong Kong and Asia Pacific. Darren has been involved in developing appropriate structures for investing into the Asia Pacific region, tax and financial due diligence reviews in connection with M&A transactions and advising on cross border transactions. Many of these projects comprise of tax effective regional planning including consideration of direct and indirect taxes, capital and stamp duties, withholding taxes and the effective use of double taxation agreements. He also advises on establishing direct investment, private equity and other investment funds in Hong Kong, and advices clients in a wide range of industries.

Darren specializes in cross-border buy-and sell-side M&A tax services (e.g. Tax Due Diligence, Tax Vendor Due Diligence), tax structuring, tax planning and optimization and international corporate tax issues, restructuring and optimization. Darren has extensive experience in working with the mainland Chinese market, including structuring acquisitions of investments in China.

Darren is the Deputy Chair of the Australian Chamber of Commerce, Hong Kong and Macau (AustCham) and the Vice-Chair of the Finance, Legal and Tax Committee of the AustCham. He is currently a Vice Chair of the Technical Committee of the Hong Kong Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (HKVCA) and a member of the Tax Committee of the Alternative Investment Management Association Limited (AIMA).