According to the BUD Fund application guide, the applicant must be a registered Hong Kong company, and if there is local business (BUD Type (ii) project in general), the Hong Kong applicant company should demonstrate its direct investment relation with the local business. Recognized relation should be one of the following:
- The applicant owns more than 50% of the local business
- The same natural person shareholder owns more than 30% of the applicant and more than 50% of the local business
- The same group of natural persons shareholders totally own both of the applicant and the local business
Related article：BUD Fund: The relation between Hong Kong applicant company & Local business
Once our BUD consultant confirms the eligibility, we will collect the evidence.
Proof of share structure should be valid and clear
Experienced consultants say very often the applicants produce invalid evidence, for example, expired document, unpaid or no stamp etc. Second, the copy is not clear enough to show the required information, such as low resolution or incomplete copying. These issues are more frequent for the Free Trade Agreement economies without electronic shareholding document.
Translation for documents in other languages
The BUD Secretariat accepts Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and English only. If there are no certain languages in the official local business document, the applicant company should provide an extra Chinese or English translation copy. The Secretariat can also ask for a verification of the translation if needed. In the same manner, if there is any local document in other languages, the applicant should provide a translation copy, too. The BUD Fund does not cover this translation fee.
Disclosure for hierarchy of companies
If a company consists of multi-level of holding companies, the applicant should disclose up to the ultimate natural person shareholders. Sometimes there are just too many documents to do it one by one, and the Secretariat may request the ultimate shareholders to declare its ownership. If someone makes a false declaration, the BUD Secretariat may transfer to the law enforcement.
The BUD Fund supports number of items but you have to be eligible in company registration, operation and direct investment in local business to move to the next step – BUD proposal. A lot of companies fails the BUD application due to the eligibility. If you have any questions, please seek consultant’s advice.
