Impact Of HKFRS On Investment Structuring

Accounting for investments in a fund’s financial statements has historically been relatively straightforward – almost always at fair value. While difficulties arise when attempting to arrive at a reliable and supportable fair value on a consistent basis, the concept of fair value for non-listed securities has been largely accepted by the industry and its investors. However, the implementation of "IFRS equivalent" standards, and hence the adoption of IAS 32 and 39 into several of the region’s accounting frameworks (such as those in Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia), has brought to the surface other accounting issues with very different and problematic operational implications for the industry.