Stephen Bates Partner, Head of Financial Services ASPAC, Deal Advisory, Singapore KPMG

Stephen leads financial services deal advisory in Singapore and Indonesia and has over 20 years experience in providing advice to clients on their transactions across Europe, the US and in the Asia Pacific. Prior to joining Singapore from London, Stephen led the deal advisory banking capital markets and consumer lending sectors and spent five years building the Financial Services transaction advisory business in Switzerland.

Stephen has significant experience leading transactions in Fintech, Banking, Insurance and Investment management providing advice to clients on M&A including target search, acquisition due diligence, refinancing, vendor assistance and vendor due diligence.

Professional and industry experience 

Advised Altimeter Growth Corp on the largest SPAC merger with Southeast Asia’s super app Grab Holdings Inc

Advised a consortium led by Singapore Life and TPG Capital on the acquisition of Aviva Singapore

Advised a Global bank on its proposed acquisition of Citi Group’s consumer business portfolio across Asia

Advised Allianz Global Investors on its acquisition of PT RHB Asset Management Indonesia from RHB Bank

Advised a confidential PE on its proposed investment in GoTo

Advised SoftBank Ventures on its investment in an e-wallet business in South Korea

Advised a confidential client on its proposed SPAC merger with a financial product comparison platform in Asia

Advised Warburg Pincus on its acquisition of ABDA and ABDA Assistance in Indonesia from Mapfre Insurance Group

Advised Eight Roads on their Series B investment in StashAway

Advised a global VC on its potential investment in a Singapore based robo-advisor

Advised on Ant Financial’s acquisition of HelloPay in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia

Advised Warburg Pincus on their investment in Techcombank

Advised a large global private equity firm on their proposed investment into a new Buku 3 bank which was being planned based on a merger between 2 Buku 2 banks in Indonesia

Advised a Middle Eastern bank on a potential investment into a Buku 3 bank in Indonesia

Christina Bao Managing Director, Co-Head of Sales & Marketing HKEX

Ms Christina Bao, Managing Director, is currently the Co-Head of Sales & Marketing at HKEX. 

Ms Bao joined HKEX in 2016 as the Chief of Staff, reporting to the CE of HKEX. She was responsible for the planning and oversight of the Group’s strategic projects.

Prior to joining HKEX, Christina held a number of senior positions at Ping An Bank (previously at Shenzhen Development Bank, which merged with Ping An Bank in 2010) since 2001. At Shenzhen Development Bank, she served as the Chief of Staff to the Chairman and CEO from 2005 until 2010, and was responsible for the bank’s strategic projects, Investor Relations and Public Relations. After the merger and integration of the two banks, she headed Retail e-Banking, Service & Marketing, and the Retail e-Finance Strategic Business Unit for Ping An Bank.

Ms Bao received her Master of Business Administration (Finance, General) from the Peking University of Mainland China.

Andrew Hawkyard Chief Investment Officer MORGAN STANLEY PRIVATE EQUITY ASIA

Andrew is the Chief Investment Officer of MSPE Asia and a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley. Mr. Hawkyard joined the Firm in 1999 and has been investing in Asia private equity for 23 years, including 22 years managing MSPE Asia’s five private equity funds to date: MSGEM (1999), Fund II (2005), Fund III (2007), Fund IV (2013) and Fund V (2018). Mr. Hawkyard currently leads the group’s private equity activities in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, and prior to that he played a lead role in establishing MSPE Asia’s private equity business in South Korea. Mr Hawkyard is also leading the establishment and oversight of the Thailand private equity business and is a member of the Thai Fund Investment Committee. Mr. Hawkyard is a director of Microlife and was previously a director of ACR, Landmark, Jinbang and CTCI and an observer to the boards of Itest and eAccess. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Hawkyard worked in the Merchant Banking and Investment Banking divisions of Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette in Hong Kong and New York. Mr. Hawkyard is a native of New Zealand and is based in Hong Kong. Mr. Hawkyard received a B.A. with First Class Honors in applied mathematics and a B.C.A. in finance from Victoria University.

Tony Duthie Managing Director, Buyouts and Secure Assets PACIFIC EQUITY PARTNERS

Tony joined Pacific Equity Partners in 2006. Before joining PEP, Tony was a Partner of Bain & Company with over 12 years of consulting experience in Australia, Asia and Europe. Tony received an MBA from INSEAD (Dean’s List) and a BCom from the University of New South Wales.