AVCJ Private Credit Forum 2022
The premier private credit forum in Asia
Virtual event
Agenda
Regional outlook: capitalizing on opportunities in Asian private credit
Despite global uncertainties, the private credit asset class in Asia continues to mature, attracting new market entrants and high levels of capital raising from both global and regional fund managers, totaling $59 billion and marking a 195% growth in the past five years. Whilst the region is still underpenetrated, accounting for approximately 9% of of assets under management globally, the asset class has seen increasing interest from LPs who are keen to deepen their credit presence in Asia, and fund managers are keen to showcase their strategies in an increasingly competitive market. Our panel of Asia-focused private credit GPs will discuss their views on the industry, tips and tricks on how to navigate the fragmented markets in the region, and the opportunities and challenges they expect in the year ahead.
- How has the asset class grown in the past year and what are the big macroeconomic themes that have underpinned the regional private credit story?
- How are GPs differentiating themselves in the region/local markets, and is deal sourcing becoming more of a challenge as more managers tap into the region for growth?
- What have been LP sentiments towards investing in Asian private credit?
- What’s next for private credit in Asia, and what are some trends that will gain traction in the next few years such as the growth of ESG strategies?
Networking Break
Distressed debt and special situation opportunities in the region
Asia’s unique opportunity set has meant that there is increasing demand from investors to allocate capital to the region, particularly to the distressed debt and special situation space. Indeed, the ongoing market uncertainties and dislocations caused by the pandemic have meant that distressed opportunities in sectors such as the hospitality space are on the uptick, and the real estate situation in China has meant that managers are looking to increase their holdings of distressed property debt in the region. Our panel of investment professionals discuss the outlook and competitive landscape for distressed debt and special situations, as well as their thoughts on what opportunities may emerge in Asia.
- How are market dislocations creating distressed debt and special situation opportunities in Asia?
- Which sectors and regions look most attractive for distressed investors?
- Are more foreign and regional investors taking a bet on distressed and special situation opportunities, or are they taking a wait-and-see approach?
- What is the outlook for the year ahead?
Networking Break
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Ben Hart is a Partner and Head of Investor Relations (Asia) at Adams Street Partners, where he focuses on the firm’s institutional and private wealth relationships across the region. Ben is a 25-year Asia resident with over 20 years’ experience in the venture-backed tech and private equity markets.
Prior to joining Adams Street, Ben worked at Swiss-based private equity firm Capital Dynamics, where he served as Managing Director and COO, Asia, overseeing the firm’s business development efforts in Asia and North America.
Before joining Capital Dynamics, Ben spent over a decade working with VC and PE-backed tech firms in China and across Asia on their market development strategies. He served as Managing Director, Asia, at Aircom International, and also held senior positions at Convergys Corporation, Alliance Digital, Inc., and the JM Network.
Education:
University of Colorado, BBA
Investment/operational experience: 21 years
Languages: English, Mandarin Chinese
Rob Petty is Co-Founder of the Clearwater Funds and Co-CEO and Co-CIO of Fiera Capital (Asia). Since founding the Clearwater Funds in 2001, Rob and his partner Amit Gupta have invested profitably across cycles, sectors and geographies, building an Asia-focused business that is one of the largest credit investing firms in the region today. Over his career, Rob has focused on Asia-dedicated credit investments, with broad expertise in direct lending, secondary credit and special situations strategies.
Rob’s principal responsibilities at Clearwater encompass portfolio management, origination and overall management of the Firm. Prior to founding Clearwater, Rob worked as a capital committer in Asian credit for fifteen years at Lehman Brothers and Peregrine Fixed income, before moving to the investment side of the business working for Marc Lasry at Amroc Investments for three years.
Rob holds a bachelor of arts degree in Political Science from Brown University and is based in Hong Kong. Rob sits on the Board of two Clearwater portfolio companies and also serves on the Board for non-profit organization EngenderHealth.
Sabita Prakash is member of ADM Capital’s Investment Advisory and Executive Committees, and leads the company’s investment efforts in South Asia. Prior to joining ADM Capital, Sabita was the Head of the Asian Fixed Income team at Fidelity Worldwide Investment. Sabita began her career in fixed income in 1993 when she joined CRISIL India as a rating analyst. In 1998, Sabita moved to Hong Kong and worked with Standard & Poor’s Rating Agency, JP Morgan Securities and HSBC in Hong Kong on the credit research side before joining Fidelity in 2004. Sabita holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics & Telecomm from Bangalore University, India. Sabita also holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.
Andrew has 20 years’ experience in Asia Pacific Private Debt, Syndicated Loans and Distressed Debt across sourcing, structuring and risk taking. Previously Head of Global Loans and Special Situations, Asia Pacific at HSBC and Head of Trading, Loans and Special Situations, Asia ex Japan at Nomura where he founded and established both HSBC’s and Nomura’s Private Debt and Special Situations businesses. Andrew was also a member of HSBC Asia Pacific Fixed Income Executive Committee and HSBC Global Credit Executive Committee. He served as the chairperson of the Asia Pacific Loan Market Association Secondary Loan committee from 2018 to 2020. Andrew is a graduate of University of Melbourne.
Quentin is a seasoned PE/VC and alternative investment professional who possesses over a decade of experience in Southeast Asian markets across the capital structure. Before starting Helicap, he was a Partner at venture capital firm 33 Capital, and Deputy CFO of MC Payment, a regional fintech company providing omni-channel payment solutions, where he met his fellow co-founder David Z Wang. Prior to that, Quentin was an Executive Director at Bongo Capital, a family office investing across industries in Indonesia and Europe. He was also part of the founding team that set up and ran the Asset Management arm for the group, during which he obtained the Investment Manager License certified by Indonesia’s OJK in 2012 (fka Bapepam-LK). He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Business Management, majoring in Finance, from the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management in Belgium. He is also fluent in French and conversational in Bahasa Indonesia and Dutch.
As Asia Pacific private credit leader, I am focussed on connecting clients to KPMG’s breadth of services to assist with fund structuring, deal sourcing, fund performance and the growth of our clients.
I regularly advise on a range of assignments across private credit including direct lending, distressed and special situations, asset backed lending, restructurings (including debt to equity transactions) and various business turnaround & value creations assignments.
Our deal team are uniquely placed to provide transaction services, debt advisory, tax structuring, turnaround and restructuring services, deal strategy, value creation, M&A, reporting and monitoring, options analysis and compliance services.
Mr. Gorthy is the Senior Portfolio Manager responsible for directing the investment activities of the Avenue Asia Strategy and has over 23 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).
Benjamin Fanger is the Managing Partner and founder of ShoreVestPartners and is one of the pioneering investors in China's credit markets. He has managed approximately $2 billion in Chinese distressed debt and special situations investments, and sits on ShoreVest’s Investment Committee. In 2004, Mr. Fanger was one of the founders of Shoreline Capital and architected the firm and its strategies. In 15 years of Chinese distressed experience, Mr. Fanger has been involved in sourcing, analysis, negotiation, restructuring and liquidation related to acquiring and disposing countless distressed assets in China. He has worked directly with Chinese distressed asset sellers, borrowers, judges, and government officials related to the investments. Prior to co-founding ShoreVest Partners and Shoreline Capital, Mr. Fanger started several companies, two of which he sold to public companies. During graduate school, he also worked at the law firm O’Melveny & Myers on early Chinese distressed debt and private equity transactions. Mr. Fanger has been fluent in spoken and written Chinese for over twenty years. He also holds a JD and MBA from the University of Chicago and is a licensed attorney in the State of California.
Johan has 14 years’ experience in private equity, turnaround, distressed and special situation investing in Australia. Johan is a Managing Director at Allegro Funds and is responsible for the management of the various portfolio companies including decisions regarding company strategy, M&A, operational improvement and optimising capital structure.
Johan currently serves on the board of Perth Radiological Clinic (PRC), Discovery Parks and Everest Ice Cream and previously has served on the boards of McColl’s Transport, Great Southern Rail (GSR) and CH2 Holdings Pty Ltd. Johan is a member of the Turnaround Management of Australia (TMA) and served on the NSW TMA Committee for a number of years.
Johan holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Oxford and Bachelor degrees in Applied Finance and Economics from Macquarie University in Sydney. Johan has completed his Graduate Certificate of Applied Finance & Investment through Kaplan Education (formally known as Finsia). Johan also studied strategic management and financial statement analysis at Harvard University in 2010.
Mr. Alex Wu joined CDH Investments in 2016, and is currently Managing Director of CDH’s Mezzanine & Credit Business. Mr. Wu is overseeing CDH’s Special Opportunities strategy, focusing on investments in NPLs, Single Credit, securitizations, restructurings and other special situations. Since joining CDH, Mr. Wu has completed multiple distressed investments and exits of RMB2bn.
Prior to CDH, Mr. Wu served as Vice President of Bank of China Group Investment Ltd, based in Hong Kong. During his time, he participated in the debt restructuring of a company in Jiangsu with bank debt over RMB 80bn and the acquisition of multiple NPL portfolios (Jiangsu, Shandong, Hennan, Guangdong, etc.) with face value of RMB 20bn.
From 2005-2014, Mr. Wu also served in GE Capital, DAC Management, where he led the NPL servicing/investment business separately.
Mr. Wu started his career with China Orient AMC Headquarters, and acquired NPLs from state-owned banks, executed the sale of multiple NPLs to foreign investors, management of debt-equity swap projects. Mr. Wu received his Bachelor of Applied Science in Aeronautics and Industrial Trade from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (BUAA) in 2001 and his MBA from Shanghai Jiaotong University in 2013. Mr. Wu is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
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.
Robert Ciemniak has been studying the China housing markets for the past 10 years, as the Founder and Chief Analyst of Real Estate Foresight, a Hong Kong-based independent research boutique specializing in the sector, from macro forecasts to detailed project/market due diligence.
Since the onset of the distress among Chinese developers, Real Estate Foresight has been assisting foreign investors/funds with the detailed monitoring of the situation and in-depth analysis of the progress, quality, and value of the underlying projects of major developers.
Robert is also the founder of an AI technology startup in automation of research - Robotic Online Intelligence, helping clients build their armies of robo-analysts, the technology originally designed for internal use at Real Estate Foresight.
Earlier, his 13-year career with Thomson Reuters included two major roles as Global Head of Real Estate Markets in London and Hong Kong, and as Head of Corporate Foresight in Group Strategy in London.
Robert holds a dual MBA degree from London Business School and Columbia Business School in New York, and an MSc from the Warsaw School of Economics. He is also an international master in chess.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-ciemniak-52734/