You were given the mandate. We take operational ownership.
Formation, banking, accounting, treasury, government interactions, office, first-year compliance – turn-key setup and full market-entry service, delivered by one team, for international corporations setting up in Hong Kong, mainland China, or Singapore.
Flagship case
Central Asian state-linked industrial group
Situation
A state-linked industrial group received a parent-board mandate to expand into China for direct equipment procurement and onward distribution from Chinese manufacturers.
What we did
Subsidiary opened with the foreign parent as shareholder. Multi-account banking architecture, designed for import-export operations. Full Year-1 obligation set – statutory accounting, audit, treasury, ~15–25 government touchpoints, tax filings. Office found, lease signed. Transaction-readiness audit. Market research conducted; deal partners identified among China’s leading industry corporations. Management accounting set up to the parent group’s reporting format from day one. One team that implemented everything.
~18%
Equipment landed-cost reduction vs prior local-distributor channel
Several USD million / year
Recurring annual savings to the parent group, year on year
Who Protected Setup is for
If you recognise the situation, the form below is for you.
Profile 01 · Corporate mandate
You are a senior manager at an international corporation.
Your task is to budget and organise market entry, and to launch operations in China or Hong Kong. The corporation does not have a dedicated in-house team for this kind of work, so external contractors are brought in. You need one contractor who will handle every question and be accountable for the end-to-end result.
Profile 02 · Restructure
You are restructuring an existing Asia operation that no longer fits the group.
The entity exists, and now the structure is being reviewed – ownership change, jurisdiction migration, or a parent reorganisation requiring a clean Hong Kong holding plus WFOE chain. Multi-jurisdictional work, one engagement plan. You need one contractor who will handle every question and be accountable for the end-to-end result.
Not your situation? If you are setting up a single HK / CN / SG company on a clean profile with a typical model, our self-serve Formation Hub fits better.
See Formation Hub →What is in the bundle
Everything you might need to start operations in China and Hong Kong, delivered in-house by one team
Company Formation
- Structure design and full incorporation – who should be the founding shareholder, how to secure ownership, director control mechanisms, and the rest of the structural questions
- Project rationale and budget preparation for board / shareholder approval
Banking-readiness
- Profile mapping – parent-entity profile, business model, geography, transaction pattern matched against 50+ banks and licensed fintechs we have tested
- Pre-application document set – profile narrative and beneficial-ownership documentation prepared to read clean to KYC review
- Full account-opening process for every account the operation needs. Multiple accounts where the engagement requires it – capital injection, import-export, multi-currency rails, and so on
First-year compliance
- Preparation of every report the parent corporation requires
- Annual statutory package – secretary continuity, registered office, annual return filing, documents renewal, statutory records
- Employer filings – submission of every form and setup of every process in China and Hong Kong required to hire and relocate employees
- CN annual obligation set (if WFOE) – statutory audit, tax-clearance filing, dividend withholding calculation
- Fiscal-year alignment to the parent group’s reporting cycle
Management accounting and treasury
- Bookkeeping cadence – chart of accounts, posting rules, monthly close calendar
- Treasury operations – payment approval workflow, FX policy, multi-currency cash-flow visibility
- Internal controls and document management – signing authorities, segregation-of-duties on approvals, defined retention schedule
- Management reporting delivered to the parent group, in the parent group’s reporting format
Government interactions
- Post-formation registrations – tax bureau, social insurance, customs (if import-export), FX administration (China)
- Industry permits and filings where the business scope requires them
- Ongoing regulatory liaison through Year 1 – inspections, queries, periodic filings, every touch logged
Office search and lease coordination
- Office search – brief, shortlist, viewings, district trade-off analysis (trade-zone status, rebate eligibility, neighbouring tenants)
- Lease coordination – contract review, deposit and rental-period structuring, registration with relevant authorities
- Payment method and channel structuring for the lease itself
- Move-in coordination – fit-out vendor introduction, utility setup, address-change filings tied to the lease
Transaction-readiness and the first export-VAT refund cycle
- Structuring guidance – how to run transactions inside legal and commercial bounds, with parent-group accounting and the China entity’s reporting both clean
- Transaction document audit – import-export contracts, invoicing, payment instructions reviewed for legal and commercial coherence
- First export-VAT refund cycle – preparation, submission, audit response, follow-through to refund received
- Documentation pack – a written playbook for the next transaction cycle, not a dependency on us
Outcome guarantee
- Personal accountability of Roman Verzin and the USG team for the success of the project
- Any problems or force-majeure events are resolved in a way that works for the client
- The result: a 100% working setup, calibrated to the corporation’s requirements
FAQ
Questions you might already have before the scoping call
Who is Protected Setup for?
International corporations expanding into mainland China or Hong Kong. The parent group does not have a dedicated China department, so external contractors are brought in for this work – partners who are accountable for the project’s outcome end-to-end.
What investment size is Protected Setup designed for?
The project budget is calculated individually depending on scope and structure, and USG helps with both its preparation and its defence to the board or shareholders.
How is this different from the Formation Hub?
Protected Setup is built for how large-scale international businesses and state corporations work. The mandate-holder needs an accountable contractor – someone who delivers to the standard the parent group expects internally. There is real preparation work before the project starts: business case, budget, roadmap, defence to the directors. For state-owned enterprises, the scope and timeline of pre-decision consulting work can be even more substantial. The scope reaches beyond formation into operational involvement – treasury setup, reporting calibrated to the parent group’s format from day one, government interactions, transaction-readiness.
The setup is turn-key. When the first commercial project lands in the new entity, it works. And one team is accountable for all of it.
Apply for Protected Setup
Eight fields, about five minutes.