Specializes in in tax structuring for private equity, real estate, credit and hedge fund clients
Focuses on international tax advisory, working with global and regional private investment funds and asset managers active in the Asia-Pacific region
Hong Kong
@alvarezmarsal
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Audrey Kao is a Senior Director with Alvarez & Marsal Tax in Hong Kong. She brings 12 years of experience in international tax advisory, working with global and regional private investment funds and asset managers active in the Asia-Pacific region.
Ms. Kao specializes in tax structuring for private equity, real estate, credit and hedge fund clients, including the set-up of investment fund and fund management structures and transaction advisory.
Prior to joining A&M, Ms. Kao spent more than four years with Ernst & Young in the Hong-Kong-based International Tax and Transaction Services team. She led one of Asia’s largest investment tax managed service engagements for a global fund client, supporting the full fund lifecycle across multiple strategies (private equity, real estate and infrastructure) and overseeing investment tax on deals across the region.
Ms. Kao began her career with KPMG I Canada, where she spent two years before moving to Hong Kong and spending six years in their financial services and transactions tax function.
Ms. Kao earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting and financial management and a master’s degree in accounting from the University of Waterloo, Canada. A member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada, Ms. Kao is fluent in English and Mandarin.
On 25 November 2024, The Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) issued a consultation paper which address the highly anticipated enhancements to Hong Kong’s Preferential Tax Regimes for privately offered funds, family-owned investment vehicles and carry interest concession regime.
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In many M&A share transactions, tax losses may represent significant hidden value. But that value depends particularly on two key questions: Can the tax losses survive the transaction and can the parties mutually agree on a business plan substantiating the future usage of the potentially surviving tax losses? Our article outlines how jurisdiction-specific rules — especially Germany’s strict change-in-ownership regime — affect the usability of tax losses post-closing, whether tax losses can provide a shelter for historic tax risks and why tax losses impact purchase price negotiations.