Our History in the Hong Kong SAR

Our journey started back in 2016.

Having been introduced to the Xero cloud based accounting software our Group Chief Executive identified an opportunity in the market to offer high quality, relationship based accounting services, exclusively using the Xero platform.

And so, initially focusing on the Hong Kong SAR market, the group was born.

It was immediately clear that clients, and potential clients, wanted not just a reliable and accurate transactional accounting service, they also wanted (and needed) the advise and expertise that comes with the experience of a Finance Director or Chief Financial Officer.

However, more than that, they also wanted a wider set of services, such as company administration, company secretarial, financial training, etc., delivered to the same high standard as their accounting services. Too many times we heard complaints from clients and potential clients about a lack of co-ordination and/or communication between individual service providers, resulting in them feeling they were either not getting the service they were paying for or were paying twice for the same service, and were spending valuable management time co-ordinating service providers and not focussing on growing their business. And so we developed our current service offering, specifically so that clients could get on with growing their business, comfortable in the knowledge that their underlying administration was being taken care of.

Talking with our clients and potential clients they also wanted the same high quality services for their non-Hong Kong registered companies. At present non-Hong Kong registered companies are serviced from our Hong Kong office, with a service offering identical to that of their Hong Kong registered counterparts, wherever possible. We work with clients and potential clients to determine their needs and how we can best meet them, with a core focus for these companies on Xero implementation and accounting services.

Now that our Hong Kong operations are established we are looking at opportunities to expand our physical presence into other countries. In time, as we get to a critical mass of services delivered and/or being requested in a particular country, we will look to establish a local presence in that country. Certain services (e.g. company secretarial) we cannot provide to non-Hong Kong incorporated companies until we establish a presence in their country of incorporation.

Meet the Hong Kong Team

Stephen J. Fell

Chief Executive

Stephen is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (FCA), having qualified over 25 years ago. Starting his professional working life as an external auditor, Stephen then moved into internal audit before settling in financial accounting more than 20 years ago.

Over his career, Stephen has managed a range of sizes of financial accounting departments, and has also implemented a number of new finance systems, including Oracle and SAP.

During his career Stephen has also focussed on financial governance, and been a regular attendee at Audit Committee meetings. Initially attending as the internal auditor for his clients, reporting on management's systems, he then switched sides of the table to attend as part of the management team, in his role leading the finance function. In his more recent roles, Stephen has also been Secretary to the Committee, working closely with the Non-Executive Directors who chair and made up the membership of the Committee.

In his last role before leaving the UK, Stephen was the Secretary to the Audit & Risk Assurance Committee at NHS England, a £100bn turnover public body, as well as managing the external audit, internal audit and counter fraud provision for the organisation.

Having moved to Hong Kong Stephen has worked as Chief Financial Officer at two start-up organisations, and experienced at first hand the pains and frustrations involved in managing and growing a business.

Stephen now runs the Indigo Group full-time, having established the business back in 2016.