Stéphane Karolczuk

Practice Areas

Funds & Asset Management, Digital Assets & Blockchain, Regulatory & Tax

Career

Stéphane Karolczuk is a partner of our Funds & Asset Management and Regulatory teams based in Hong Kong. He has extensive experience advising clients across the Asia-Pacific region on a variety of investment fund legal and regulatory matters.

Stéphane provides comprehensive guidance on all aspects of investment funds, including structuring, registration, marketing, offering and listing of investment funds, across the range of private equity, real estate, private debt and credit, hedge funds, and generally all alternative Luxembourg and foreign investment funds.

His expertise encompasses the selection and establishment of investment structures, drafting of contractual and marketing documentation, and liaison with key regulatory bodies, including the Luxembourg Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. Stéphane looks after mutual funds clients (UCITS) and their needs in the EU and APAC region.

Stéphane also specialises in strategies involving investments in the APAC region, as well as the distribution of funds in the EU and APAC region. He was instrumental in having Luxembourg investment vehicles make use of channels to access the PRC capital markets (QFII, RQFII, Stock Connect, Bond Connect, QDII, QDII2, QDIE, QDLP, etc).

Before joining Harneys in 2025, Stéphane was a partner of a leading Luxembourg law firm based in Hong Kong. His journey began in Luxembourg, followed by a secondment to the firm’s New York office, where he led an Investment Management Helpdesk assisting US clients with their Luxembourg investment fund queries. He later set up the firm’s Hong Kong office and led its Asian strategy for 15 years, further expanding his expertise in cross-border investment fund matters.

Stéphane has taken part in the activities of the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI), the Hong Kong Investment Funds Association (HKIFA), the Hong Kong Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (HKVCA), and he is regularly invited to speak on investment management related topics at conferences in the region. He is co-chair of the Banking Finance and Securities Committee of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA).