Sharon Yap

OVERVIEW

Sharon is a partner of Maples and Calder's Funds & Investment Management team in the Maples Group's Hong Kong office. She specialises in a wide range of fund formation and structuring including private equity, venture capital, infrastructure and real estate funds, private debt funds and hedge funds.  Sharon also has broad experience advising on private equity downstream transactions, carried interest arrangements, co-investments, fund restructurings, fund financing and both GP and LP led secondaries.  Her clients include leading global and top-tier regional private equity and venture capital sponsors, some of the biggest securities houses in China and Japan, leading conglomerates in Japan and Korea plus boutique and start-up managers.

Sharon has been recognised as a top female practitioner in Investment Funds and Women in Business Law in Euromoney’s Women in Business Law Expert Guide 2021 and 2022.  She has been described in multiple leading publications including IFLR1000 Asia, Chambers and Who’s Who Legal as “first-rate”, "widely applauded for her encyclopaedic knowledge of the market, recent trends, topical issues and its solution” and providing “consistently prompt and practical advice”. Who's Who Legal has recognised her as a Thought Leader and National Leader in WWL – Mainland China & HK SAR 2021 and 2022 in the field of Private Funds, Global Leader in WWL 2022 in the field of Private Funds – Formation, and Leading Individual in WWL Private Funds 2023. She has also been recognised as a winner of the 2022 Client Choice Award for Private Funds, which recognises firms and partners who stand out for their excellent client care and quality of service.

She is a member of the HKVCA Technical Committee.

BACKGROUND

Sharon joined the Maples Group in 2008 and was elected as a partner in December 2015.  She previously worked for a law firm in Jersey and, before that, was an in-house lawyer for Westpac Banking Corporation, having initially worked for Bell Gully in New Zealand.