How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience? 

ADM Capital’s private credit direct lending business covers the entire APAC region and managing legal aspects involves bringing to the table a broad history of structuring expertise to ensure appropriate downside protections. Maintaining strong relationships with key law firms in each of our target country jurisdictions helps in terms of allocating work to trusted professionals. Our 25-year history through various crises including the 2003 Avian Flu, the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, and the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated the importance of preserving downside asset value for periods of instability and uncertain values.  

Do you have a cause, business-related or otherwise, that you are passionate about? 

ADM Capital’s mission is to maintain our position as Asia’s leading ESG-aligned private credit manager.  This requires coordination across all teams in implementing of E&S action plans, E&S KPIs, technical expertise, and know-how in our portfolio companies. From a legal perspective, we strive to ensure E&S outcomes are protected with legal covenants in financing documentation, on par with other financial or operational covenants.   

Can you discuss a particularly challenging dispute or M&A scenario you encountered and the innovative strategies you implemented to address it? 

With the retreat of international banks from balance sheet lending in Asia, we are seeing more private credit transactions focused on cross-border and multijurisdictional lending, as well as M&A financing activities. Many of them are driven by intra-Asian business activities as Western financiers and corporates focus on their home markets. Recently, we have been involved in transactions involving PRC, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand financings, requiring a high degree of coordination and resource allocation work in the General Counsel role to ensure the various country teams collaborate effectively. Conversely, when a transaction such as this requires restructuring or enforcement, it can involve dispute resolution in multiple jurisdictions requiring even higher levels of coordination.