A measured set of answers to the questions clients most commonly raise before engaging Ovata. Where a question is jurisdiction- or mandate-specific, the discovery consultation is the right place to work it through; this set is firm-wide.
Ovata Group is a cross-border corporate advisory firm. We advise families, family offices, fund managers, corporates and government organisations on the structuring and execution of complex mandates that span jurisdictions — from deal and transaction structuring through capital raising, fund establishment, market entry and cross-border regulatory advisory. Every mandate is coordinated end-to-end from a single point of contact.
Three primary offices in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Sydney, and a network of international channel partners and licensed local practitioners in every jurisdiction the mandate reaches. We do not publish a partner list; the network is operated discreetly and on a referral basis.
No. Ovata Group is a corporate advisory firm. It is not a law firm, a licensed financial adviser, a registered migration agent or a licensed immigration adviser, and it does not provide legal, tax, immigration or financial product advice. Regulated advice within every mandate is contracted with, and delivered by, the licensed practitioner responsible for it. Ovata coordinates and drives the mandate to close.
Ovata operates through a group of subsidiaries and channel-partner relationships. Detailed ownership and governance information is available to clients and prospective clients on a confidential basis. The firm's leadership structure and reporting lines are described in the About page.
Every engagement begins with a confidential discovery consultation — in person or by conference call — to understand your objectives and undertake a situational analysis of the jurisdictions, entities and issues involved. There is no obligation at that stage. Where the matter is a fit, we prepare a written engagement brief, convene a follow-up meeting, and settle scope and engagement documents within five business days of that meeting.
The discovery consultation is complimentary and without obligation. If we are not the right firm for the matter, we will say so — and where possible, point you towards someone who is.
Engagement structure depends on the mandate. Common structures include fixed fees for defined scopes of work, monthly retainers for ongoing programmes, and success or milestone components for capital raising and transaction mandates. Fees are documented in the engagement letter and are not contingent on any immigration or visa outcome. Ovata's fees are separate from, and additional to, the fees of any licensed legal, tax, immigration or regulatory practitioner engaged on the mandate.
Yes. Every mandate has one named principal as the point of accountability. When you call, you reach the person who knows the file. There is no relationship-manager rotation and no offshore service desk.
Client data, communications and counterparty relationships are treated to institutional confidentiality standards. Sensitive documents are handled through a secure client portal with per-mandate access controls. Working practices, retention policies and third-party engagement protocols are all designed around institutional expectations.
Ovata's practice is organised around five pillars: (1) cross-border deal & transaction structuring — acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures and restructurings; (2) capital raising & private credit — equity, debt, hybrid and private credit facilities; (3) fund establishment & licensing — open- and closed-ended funds, feeder and master structures, VCC and equivalents; (4) market entry & corporate structuring — entering a new jurisdiction as an operating business; and (5) cross-border regulatory advisory — licensing positioning across ASIC, MAS, SFC, Labuan FSA, DFSA/FSRA and equivalent regimes.
Transaction mandates commonly sit in the USD 5m to USD 500m+ enterprise value range. Capital raising mandates cover institutional and family-office rounds across the same range. Fund establishment mandates cover single-investor vehicles through to multi-strategy funds; market-entry mandates run from operating-company launches to full regional platform builds.
Primary coverage is the Asia-Pacific — Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, New Zealand — extending through the group's network of channel partners into the UAE, UK, Ireland, Switzerland, the offshore centres (Cayman, BVI, Labuan) and the Americas (Paraguay, Panama). Where a mandate reaches a jurisdiction outside our direct footprint, we engage licensed local counsel through the network.
Ovata's role is to design the mandate, sequence the workstreams, and coordinate the licensed practitioners in each relevant jurisdiction. Regulated legal, tax, immigration and financial-services advice is provided by those licensed practitioners — engaged directly by the client where the mandate requires. This preserves the client's statutory and professional protections and keeps the roles cleanly separated.
Immigration advice, eligibility assessments and visa/residency applications are prepared and lodged by licensed migration lawyers and registered advisers in our professional network in each jurisdiction — not by Ovata. Ovata coordinates everything around the move: the corporate, tax and settlement workstreams that turn a residency pathway into a working cross-border structure. Detail is on the Residency & Relocation page.
All immigration advice, eligibility assessments and application work in Australia and New Zealand are provided by Australian immigration lawyers or registered migration agents, and New Zealand IAA-licensed immigration advisers or lawyers, respectively. Ovata does not itself give immigration advice within the meaning of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) or the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007 (NZ).
Coordination covers seven jurisdictions: Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, Paraguay and Panama. Specific programme details, licensed-partner attribution and delivery notes are on the Residency & Relocation page.
Ovata is a senior corporate advisory practice, not a volume firm. Every mandate is led by a principal. We do not delegate the client relationship, we do not rotate advisers, and we do not run mandates the firm is not the right fit for. Where a bulge-bracket house would be the better answer, we say so.
No. Every conversation is with a senior Ovata advisor. There is no AI-agent phone tree, no offshore service desk, and no relationship-manager rotation. When you call the number on your engagement letter, you reach the person who knows your file.
Ovata Group is a corporate advisory firm. It is not itself a law firm, licensed financial adviser or registered migration agency; where a mandate requires regulated advice, that work is contracted with, and delivered by, the licensed practitioner responsible for it. Ovata is a member of the Investment Migration Council in Geneva — the global standards body for residence and citizenship advisory — and its residency-coordination work is delivered to those standards through the licensed practitioners in the network.
The discovery consultation is complimentary. If we are not the right firm for the matter, we will say so.