Screening before terms. Payment against documents.

Nothing starts from a phone call. An equipment enquiry has to arrive as a written specification — model or duty, capacity, voltage and frequency, the standard the machine must meet on arrival, the destination port and the intended Incoterm. An asset or equity proposal has to arrive with the registration particulars of what is being sold.

Where a requirement is incomplete, we say so and ask for the missing part rather than quote against an assumption.

Before any commercial term is discussed: identity and registration of the counterparty, its ownership and control, the jurisdictions involved, and screening against the applicable sanctions lists and adverse media.

The result is written down and kept on file with the transaction. Where screening raises something we cannot resolve, the transaction does not proceed — and we say why, in writing, to the counterparty.

Goods are sold under a written sales contract concluded in Hong Kong and governed by Hong Kong law, on Incoterms 2020 — usually FOB at a mainland port, or CIF / CFR to the port of discharge. Assets and shareholdings are transferred under a purchase or shareholders’ agreement.

Price, currency, inspection right, delivery window, documents to be presented and the consequences of delay are all in the contract. Nothing material is left to correspondence.

For goods: supplier qualification, production follow-up, third-party pre-shipment inspection where the buyer requires it, loading, and the presentation of a complete document set — commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading, certificate of origin and the inspection report.

For assets and shares: completion, title or register entry, and the filings that go with them.

Payment moves against documents. The company does not release documents ahead of payment terms, and does not pay a party that is not named in the contract.

What the group keeps is administered at holding level: title and insurance for assets, shareholder rights for equity, and consolidation into a single set of accounts audited annually in Hong Kong.

Exits are planned. A position is entered with a view on how it would be sold, not only on how it would be bought.