Name: APAC Fund Finance Market Update
Start: 2023-06-13T13:00:00Z
End: 2023-06-13T14:00:00Z

James Abbott

Corrs Chambers Westgarth

Paul Aherne

Walkers

Paul Aherne

Partner | Walkers

Paul is a partner in Walkers' Global Finance and Corporate Group. Paul has extensive experience of debt financing transactions in Asia acting for financial institutions, private equity sponsors, investors and corporates. He specialises in advising in relation to the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands and Bermuda law aspects of fund finance, leveraged and acquisition finance, real estate finance, structured equity finance (including margin loans and equity derivatives), private credit, special situations and general secured and unsecured lending. Paul has over a decade of experience working on fund financing matters in Asia for regional and global lender and sponsor clients. As the market has grown he has been involved in many of the largest and most innovative fund financing transactions.

Paul joined Walkers in 2011 after working in both Hong Kong and Tokyo as a senior associate in the Banking Group of Allen & Overy.

Fi Dinh

MUFG Investor Services

Fi Dinh

Managing Director, Head of Fund Finance APAC | MUFG Investor Services

Fi is Managing Director, Head of Fund Finance APAC at MUFG Investor Services where she lead the expansion of the firm’s fund financing business across Asia Pacific, as well as supporting the growth of the asset servicing and fund administration business globally to assist private capital funds with their liquidity and operational needs.

Fi is a familiar face of the fund finance community globally having supported the growth of this sector for over a decade across the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia markets. She was recognized in The Drawdown’s ‘Most Influential Fund Finance Experts of 2022’ globally. Fi is also active in supporting diversity and next generation development in the industry. She was one of the first members of the Women in Fund Finance Europe committee when she was in London and is co-chair of the Women in Fund Finance APAC since 2020.

Fi pioneered the global trend of ESG-linked fund finance facilities when she led the world’s first ESG-linked subscription credit facility in 2019, marrying the sustainability-linked loan technology that was gaining momentum in other sectors at individual company or asset level, to a portfolio framework that can be applied to PE funds even at the beginning stage of their lifecycle. She sits on the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Financial Centre Advisory Panel (FCAP) – Green Finance working group for the fund management industry since 2020.

Fi moved to Singapore from London at the start of 2019 to help build out the fund and insurance finance business for ING Bank across in APAC and led a rapid expansion of the business within a short few years, by offering creative solutions to GPs, drawing on her extensive experience with market terms in the US and Europe to promote alignments and scalability for the product in the APAC region. Before ING, Fi spent nearly a decade at Barclays in London and Dubai, where she was Director in the Financial Institutions Group and helped build a successful Private Equity coverage franchise supporting financial sponsors and alternative asset managers in EMEA and the US. Her earlier banking career spans across credit analysis, operational risk and project management in the investment banking and corporate banking divisions.

Tom Kirby

Bank of China

Tom Kirby

Managing Director | Head of Fund Finance | Bank of China

Tom joined Bank of China in Sydney in February 2020 and is a Managing Director heading up their fund finance business.

With more than 20 years’ banking experience with HSBC, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Bank of China, Tom’s background includes delivery of subscription and asset-based financing, transactional banking, risk management and global markets products to many of the world largest fund managers.

Tom has built a market-wide reputation for his strengths in relationship management and deal execution with the world’s largest financial Institutions.

Angela Lai

Preqin

Angela Lai

Head of APAC and Valuations, Research Insights | Preqin

Angela is Head of APAC and Valuations, Research Insights in Preqin’s Research Insights team and covers the private investments industry in the Asia-Pacific region. She has over 15 years' experience in investment analysis and risk management across asset classes in public and private markets, specializing in the valuation of private equity and private debt assets including distressed and special situations.

Prior to joining Preqin, Angela worked for Deutsche Bank as valuation lead for alternative investments in the APAC region. Before that she was a credit analyst at OCBC Singapore and an equity analyst at Macquarie Capital Japan. Angela holds an MBA from the University of Cambridge as well as a BSSc from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is also a CFA charterholder.

Soumitro Mukerji

DLA Piper

Soumitro Mukerji

Partner | DLA Piper

Soumitro is a multi-specialist banking and finance Partner with extensive experience in the Asian and European financial markets. In his professional career spanning nearly two decades, he has advised financial institutions, funds, corporates and financial advisors across the credit and geographic spectrum. His practice covers sponsor-backed financings, fund financings, structured lending, limited recourse financings and corporate lending.

Soumitro has significant expertise in fund finance transactions and has counselled financiers and fund managers on a wide range of fund financing transactions across all asset classes, including subscription line financings, umbrella facilities, NAVs, hybrids, GP facilities and other forms of liquidity solutions. Since 2019, he has advised on fund finance matters exceeding USD8bn in value.

Danielle Roman

Mourant

Danielle Roman

Partner | Mourant

Danielle is a Partner in Mourant’s Banking and Finance team in Hong Kong, having practiced in Asia for over 15 years. She advises on a broad spectrum of cross-border transactions, including asset finance (with particular expertise in aviation and shipping finance), fund financing, acquisition and leveraged finance, debt restructurings, project finance, FinTech and general corporate lending.

In fund financing, she regularly represents investment and commercial banks on subscription credit facilities. She is also Co-Head of the Asia-Pacific Executive Committee for the Fund Finance Association, and is on the board of directors of Women in Fund Finance Asia. Danielle has been recognised for her work in fund finance through awards such as the Dee Dee Sklar Women in Fund Finance Award 2020.

Prior to joining Mourant in 2012, she worked at Clifford Chance in Hong Kong and Dentons in London.

Niamh Targett

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ)

Niamh Targett

Director | Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ)

Niamh Targett is a Director at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) based in Hong Kong, where she heads the Institutional Funds Coverage team for Asia. Niamh and her team cover private capital firms providing subscription facilities and real estate financing, hedging support and cash management solutions, as well as acting as the primary co-ordination point for such funds ‘engagement with structured and leverage finance teams across the bank.

Niamh has over 20 years of banking experience, having worked in London and Hong Kong, covering financial institutions, with a particular focus in the Funds segments across markets and financing products.

Niamh holds a Bachelor’s degree in commerce, and has her CFA Level 2.

Albert Tan

Haynes Boone

Albert Tan

Partner and Co-Head of Fund Finance | Haynes Boone

Albert Tan is a Partner and Co-Head of the Global Fund Finance Group with Haynes and Boone, LLP. Albert also currently on Haynes Boone’s Executive Committee, Board of Directors and Partners Compensation Committee.

Albert has represented investment and commercial banks, as agents and arrangers in more than 600 subscription secured credit facilities with total value of over $200 billion to Asia, US, Europe, Latin America and global real estate, infrastructure, debt, buyout and energy private equity funds, including structuring and documenting some of the first subscription financing to real estate private equity funds in Japan, Greater China, Singapore and Korea and to some of the largest global infrastructure funds and Asia-focused buyout funds; and during the global financial crises of 2007-2008, Albert was one of few fund finance attorneys who represented lenders in the successful enforcement of subscription financing defaults against PE funds and their investors.

The National Law Journal selected Albert to its inaugural list of Finance, Banking and Capital Markets Trailblazers in 2019, Euromoney Expert Guides, Euromoney Institutional Investor 2012, listed him as a “Leading Practitioner” in its Guide to Leading Practitioners: International Private Equity, U.S., and the Minority Corporate Counsel Association recognized Albert as a 2021 MCCA Rainmaker for his outstanding leadership, business acumen, passion and dedication to proactive client development.

Albert serves as a member of the US Advisory Committee and Asia Pacific Executive Committee of the Fund Finance Association.

Albert received his BA from San Diego State University and his JD and LLM from Southern Methodist University and Georgetown University; and speaks Chinese (Mandarin).

Jean Woo

Ashurst

Jean Woo

Office Managing Partner, Singapore | Ashurst

Jean is managing partner of our Singapore office and a partner in the global loans practice in the Ashurst Singapore office. She specialises in international banking and finance transactions, and has over 15 years of experience in the structured lending space in particular funds financing.

Jean has acted for banks, private funds and sponsors and has a broad exposure to a number of jurisdictions in Asia with a particular focus on jurisdictions in South and Southeast Asia.

Jean is a member of the Advisory Council to the Fund Finance Association (FFA) in the APAC region and is also a committee member of Women in Fund Finance. She also contributes to the Singapore chapter in the Global Legal Insights (GLI) publication on Fund Finance.

Frank Wu

DBS Bank

Frank Wu

Executive Director & Head of Private Markets Funds | DBS Bank

Frank Wu is an Executive Director & Head of the Private Markets Funds segment of DBS Bank. In this role. Frank is responsible for leading the development of relationships with Private Markets Funds at the fund level including PE, VC, Private Credit, Infrastructure, Real Estate and Fund of Funds across the global franchise.

As a founding member of the team, he is instrumental in building up DBS’ fund finance business and has partnered with GPs and investors to provide bespoke fund finance solutions throughout the fund lifecycle. He joined DBS as a Management Associate in 2011 and had previous roles in finance, internal audit and financial institutions group of DBS in Asia. He also served as a Council Member for the Graduate Associate Program of DBS Institutional Banking Group.

Frank is an active member of the fund finance community and serves as a member of the APAC Executive Committee of the Fund Finance Association, where he supports the investment funds market within the APAC.

He holds an MBA from Chicago Booth School of Business and BSc (Hons) in Statistics from National University of Singapore.

APAC Fund Finance Market Update

The FFA APAC Executive Committee hosts fund finance experts to discuss the latest market update, trends and predictions for the APAC Fund Finance market.

Agenda

Speakers

James Abbott

Paul Aherne

Fi Dinh

Tom Kirby

Angela Lai

Soumitro Mukerji

Danielle Roman

Niamh Targett

Albert Tan

Jean Woo

Frank Wu