Sharon Yap

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”. Most recently, Sharon has been endorsed as a Leading Lawyer – Highly regarded with IFLR1000 2024-2025 of Hong Kong SAR. In addition, Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal) has recognised her as a Thought Leader and National Leader in WWL – Mainland China & HK SAR in the field of Private Funds consecutively since 2021, Leading Individual in WWL Private Funds 2023, and Global Leader in WWL 2022 and 2025 in the field of Private Funds – Formation. 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.