Virtual CFO
M&A due diligence support
Financial due diligence support for a buy-side or sell-side deal involving a Hong Kong company: a data room organised around the audited accounts a buyer will ask for, a quality-of-earnings style adjustment schedule, and answers sourced back to your records.
13-week cash forecast
Illustrative client · August 2026
HKD
- Cash today
- HK$244,220
- Lowest week ahead
- 239,800
- Largest outflow
- Payroll, 46,300
Illustrative. An example of the document, not a client's figures.
Diligence starts from the audited accounts
A Hong Kong deal's financial diligence almost always begins with the same document: the audited financial statements a Hong Kong registered auditor has already signed, since every active Hong Kong company files these annually with no small-company exemption. A buyer's advisor will reconcile everything else back to those statements, so a data room that does not line up with the last two or three years of audited accounts creates delay before it creates trust.
What we prepare
We assemble a financial data room from your books, organised to a standard due diligence request list and cross-referenced to the relevant audited financial statements and BIR51 filings. A quality-of-earnings style adjustment schedule normalises add-backs, one-off items and owner or related-party transactions, common in Hong Kong groups with an affiliated Mainland or overseas entity. Working capital analysis covers Hong Kong dollar, USD and RMB balances separately where the business trades across currencies, and a proposed closing peg calculation is built around what the deal actually needs.
Where Hong Kong's structure adds complexity
Because Hong Kong's profits tax is territorial, a buyer's advisor will often probe whether reported offshore income has genuine support behind it. We prepare the underlying schedule showing where revenue and activity actually sit; the tax position itself is confirmed by your tax adviser or credentialed signer, not asserted by us. Company secretarial and Companies Registry filing history, which needs a TCSP licensee or an exempt accounting or legal practitioner in Hong Kong, is referenced in the data room but prepared by that licensee, not by our team.
Working with your deal team
We coordinate with your deal counsel and any outside quality-of-earnings firm engaged for the transaction, and we work exclusively with one side of a deal, buyer or seller, to avoid a conflict of interest.
Questions
Frequently asked questions: M&A due diligence support
Does diligence support include the statutory audit itself?
No. We prepare the underlying schedules and reconcile them to the audited financial statements a Hong Kong registered auditor has already signed. We do not perform the audit.
Can you help with the territorial-tax question a buyer's advisor raises?
We prepare the schedule showing where revenue and activity actually sit. The determination of what falls outside Hong Kong's territorial tax scope stays with your tax adviser or credentialed signer.
Do you handle Companies Registry filing history for the data room?
We reference it in the data room, but the filings themselves are handled by a TCSP licensee or an exempt accounting or legal practitioner, since company secretarial work in Hong Kong needs that licensing.
How far in advance of a deal should diligence support start?
As soon as a deal looks likely, ideally before a buyer's advisors send their first request list, since a data room built in advance moves faster than one assembled under pressure once diligence has already begun.
Do you work for the buy side, the sell side, or both?
Either, depending on which side of the deal your company sits on; the underlying work, organising financial records and answering an advisor's questions accurately, is similar whether your company is buying or being bought out.
Do you perform the quality-of-earnings report itself?
We prepare the underlying schedules and support materials. A formal QoE report is typically produced by an outside firm engaged for that purpose; we prepare the underlying schedules and can work alongside them.
Can you support both sides of a deal?
We work with either the buyer or the seller, not both on the same transaction, to avoid a conflict of interest.
How fast can a data room be assembled?
It depends on how current your books already are. Businesses with clean monthly closes can usually have a first-pass data room ready in under two weeks.
What software works with m&A due diligence support?
M&A due diligence support runs inside Excel or Google Sheets, whichever you already use. If you are not yet set up in either, we can configure a file in your name so you keep ownership of it once the engagement is under way.
Related services
- Virtual CFOExit readinessA review of what a buyer's diligence team will see in your books, done before you go to market, so surprises get fixed on your own timeline instead of theirs.
- Virtual CFO13-week cash flow forecastA rolling week-by-week cash forecast that shows what is coming in, what is going out, and where the next 13 weeks get tight.
- Virtual CFOFractional CFOA senior finance lead who works your numbers on a part-time basis: monthly reviews, board and investor prep, and a second opinion before a big decision.
Industries
Next step
Talk to the team that would run your books
A short call covers your setup, your software and what a first month would look like. You get a written scope and price after it.