Ovata Group is a corporate advisory firm specialising in cross-border transactions. Our practice is organised around five pillars, each led by a senior principal and drawn from the specialists in our group and network of channel partners. Every mandate is coordinated end-to-end from a single point of contact.
Deal and transaction structuring is at the core of Ovata's practice. We advise on acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures, restructurings and corporate reorganisations that span jurisdictions — designing the transaction architecture, sequencing the workstreams, and coordinating the counsel, tax advisers and other professionals engaged on the file.
Cross-border transactions rarely fail on the commercial terms. They fail on the seams — where jurisdictions meet, where holding structures were engineered for a different purpose, where regulatory approvals were assumed rather than confirmed. Our role is to identify those seams early and design around them.
Regulated legal, tax and financial advice on the transaction is provided by licensed practitioners in each relevant jurisdiction, engaged directly by the client where the mandate requires. Ovata coordinates and drives to close.
Ovata advises corporates, fund sponsors and family-office platforms on capital raising mandates across equity, debt and hybrid instruments. Our work covers strategy — the shape of the raise, the sequence of investors, the jurisdictional path — and execution: information memoranda, investor engagement, documentation and drive-to-close.
In private credit we advise sponsors on structuring facilities that meet institutional and family-office standards, and advise borrowers on the terms, jurisdiction and security structure of cross-border private-credit financings.
Ovata is not a licensed securities dealer, placement agent or financial adviser. Where regulated capital-raising activity is required, the mandate is contracted with the appropriately licensed practitioner in each relevant jurisdiction.
Ovata advises fund sponsors and asset managers on the establishment of open- and closed-ended funds, feeder and master structures, and single-investor and family-office vehicles. We work across the principal fund jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific and offshore centres, matching structure to strategy, investor base and treatment.
Alongside establishment we coordinate the licensing workstreams — sponsor licensing, fund-manager registration, VCC and equivalent regime applications, and the regulator engagement that accompanies them. The applications themselves are lodged by licensed local counsel; Ovata drives the process and holds it together.
We work directly with regulated fund administrators, custodians and depositaries to stand the structure up on the ground.
Entering a new jurisdiction as an operating business — as opposed to a passive holding structure — requires sequenced work across entity selection, holding-company design, substance build-out, corporate governance, staff and the practical steps of standing an operation up on the ground.
Ovata advises corporates, growth-stage businesses and family-office operating companies on the shape of the market-entry move: the right entity structure, where the substance sits, how the group holds the new business, and how it is governed from day one.
Corporate secretarial, tax filings and locally-licensed advisory work are engaged with licensed local practitioners in each jurisdiction; Ovata coordinates the programme and remains the client's single point of contact.
For businesses whose model touches a regulated activity — financial services, funds, payments, cross-border capital rules, digital assets, corporate services — the licensing decision is often more consequential than any subsequent commercial decision. Choose the wrong regime and every product, every customer, every capital raise is constrained by it.
Ovata advises on regulatory positioning and licensing strategy across the group's core jurisdictions: how the business should be characterised, which regime is the right fit, what the licensing path looks like, and how the substance and governance should be designed to sustain it. The advice is strategic and coordinated; the licensed legal and regulatory advice is provided by qualified counsel in each jurisdiction.
Ovata Group is not itself a law firm or licensed financial adviser. We do not provide legal, tax or financial product advice. Regulated advice within any mandate is contracted with, and delivered by, the licensed practitioner responsible for it.
You will always know what is being done, who is acting for you, and under what authority.
We begin with a confidential discussion — 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 this stage; its purpose is clarity.
Ovata prepares a written brief setting out our understanding of your position, the matters identified and the proposed workstreams, for your confirmation. We then convene a follow-up meeting, bringing in the relevant Ovata specialists and, where the brief requires, licensed partners from our professional network.
Within five business days of the follow-up meeting, the scope of work is settled and engagement documents are issued for your review and discussion. Depending on the mandate, you may engage Ovata, the relevant experts or practitioners directly, or both — so that regulated advice is always provided by, and contracted directly with, the professional licensed to give it.
Delivery against the agreed scope. Ovata coordinates workstreams, advisers and milestones as your single point of contact through to completion.
Ovata Group does not provide immigration advice or immigration assistance within the meaning of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007 (NZ) or equivalent legislation in any other jurisdiction. Where a mandate includes a residency or visa element, that element is scoped with, and contracted directly to, the licensed practitioner responsible for it.