AVCJ Private Equity & Venture Forum
Asia's premier private equity & venture event for the last 36 years
LIVE Broadcast & In Person
Four Seasons Hotel, Hong Kong & Online
15
Nov
Track 2: Special situations: Right product, right time
- To what extent are there signs of distress in Asia?
- Are potential returns enough to offset greater emerging markets risk?
- What structural solutions are used to turn somewhat investable into investable?
- Which niche strategies or overlooked sectors are getting most traction?
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SpeakersPing Zhou Assistant Editor, China Bureau Chief DEBTWIRE
Anil Gorthy Senior Portfolio Manager AVENUE CAPITAL GROUP
Toby Damek Partner ARES MANAGEMENT
Sophia Xia Managing Director, Co-head of China Restructuring HOULIHAN LOKEY
Sarit Chopra Head of Special Situations, Asia BAIN CAPITAL
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Ping Zhou leads a China journalists team writing distressed and event-driven corporate credits for Asia high yield fix income investors and restructuring advisories, covering both onshore and offshore Chinese restructuring and liquidation situations for Debtwire APAC since 2013. She started her journalist career with Financial Times in 2011 and won SOPA 2012 award in Hong Kong for breaking news on Wukan Guangdong protests. She has Korean literature background and lived in Pyongyang, Seoul, before moving to Hong Kong.
Mr. Gorthy is the Senior Portfolio Manager responsible for directing the investment activities of the Avenue Asia Strategy and has over 20 years of investment experience in Asia. Prior to joining Avenue in 2014, Mr. Gorthy was a Managing Director and Partner at Pacific Alliance Group (“PAG”) in Hong Kong, where he was a Senior Portfolio Manager focusing on special situations and distressed investments. Prior to PAG, Mr. Gorthy was a Director in Deutsche Bank’s Asia-Pacific Distressed Products Group. Previously, he was a Director at Beacon Advisory Pte Ltd in Singapore, providing consulting and advisory services to Asian corporates and, before that, Mr. Gorthy worked in Deutsche Bank’s Corporate Finance and Investment Banking division.
Mr. Gorthy received a Bachelor of Technology (First with Distinction) from National Institute of Technology Warangal (1996) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (2000).
Mr. Damek is a Partner in Ares Asia, where he is responsible for identifying, assessing and executing credit and special situations investments in South East Asia. Prior to joining Ares in 2020, Mr. Damek worked as a Managing Director of the SSG Group since 2009 and was instrumental in growing the firm's South East Asia business, originating, structuring, executing and managing investments. Previously, Mr. Damek was an Associate in the Asia Special Situations Group at Lehman Brothers, where he focused on special situations and distressed investments. Prior to Lehman, Mr. Damek was a consultant with Bain & Company in Singapore and in the UK, where he advised clients across a number of industries and geographies on strategic issues, including business turnaround, cost reduction, market entry and acquisitions. Mr. Damek holds a B.A. in Natural Sciences, an M.Sc. in Physics from Cambridge University and an M.B.A. from INSEAD, France
Ms. Xia joined Houlihan Lokey in 2012 and is currently the Co-head of China Restructuring, responsible for deal sourcing, execution and staff management. She has extensive experience advising clients in Asia on restructuring situations, M&A and capital raising across different industries. Her recent transactions include company-side mandates for China Evergrande, Kaisa, Fantasia, Modern Land, Sunac, Tahoe and Luckin Coffee; and creditor-side mandates for Shimao Group, Yestar Healthcare, Sichuan Languang, GCL Energy, Hilong Group, Huachen Energy, China Shanshui Cement, Winsway Enterprises, Bumi Resources, Paladin Energy and Oro Negro. Before joining HL, Ms. Xia was at J.P. Morgan’s investment banking division where she focused on M&A and capital raising. Ms. Xia started her career as an analyst at Morgan Stanley in New York.
Ms. Xia graduated magna cum laude from Duke University with a B.S. in Mathematics and Economics, and a Certificate in Markets and Management Studies. She is a native speaker of Mandarin and Cantonese and fluent in English.
Mr. Sarit Chopra has 30 years of experience across special situations and credit investing, M&A advisory and financial advisory services. A majority of this experience over the last 20 years has been focused on investing in credit and special situations across Asia. He is Head of Special Situations for Asia for Bain Capital based in Hong Kong. Mr. Chopra joined Bain Capital in 2015 prior to which he worked for 12 years at Standard Chartered Bank where he was in their proprietary investment team focused on special situations investing across Asia. Over his career Mr. Chopra has led and closed a variety of investments ranging from high yield lending, structured capital solutions to support growth or restructurings; turnaround financings; secondary purchases of distressed debt and acquisitions of non-performing loan portfolios. He has been involved with setting up and managing large platforms for a variety of investment strategies across the region. Prior to his investing career, Mr. Chopra worked at KPMG, advising on a variety of M&A transactions, mostly in India and for brief period in the UK. Mr. Chopra received a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) degree in economics from Hindu College in Delhi University and subsequently qualified as a chartered accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.