Team size: Two

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Over the past 24 months, our small but agile team of five has been able to deploy around $16m in seed capital and debt to start-ups in the Philippines, Singapore, and the US. Our portfolio companies were carefully vetted and selected to match our investment focus of businesses which reduce pollution, automate, and improve health and wellness.

Our team participated in preliminary interviews with the founders and conducted legal due diligence for the purpose of providing legal recommendations and strategic advice during the investment approval process. We also reviewed the documentary package for the equity subscriptions (in local and foreign law), corresponded with local and foreign counsel for any clarifications and changes we requested, and where necessary, drafted additional or supplementary agreements to ensure the protection of our investments and minimise legal exposure.

On the asset management side, we also provided oversight and strategic advice to external counsel handling ongoing litigation in relation to a local government expropriation case involving company property and a highly publicised injunction proceeding against a portfolio company.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners?

We set a goal to become the most helpful investors our portfolio companies will have. To achieve this, we work directly with our founders to ensure success in their missions. Our legal team has provided our portfolio companies support on contract drafting, regulatory interface, and strategic advice on debt financing and equity restructuring.

I personally believe that there must be a sense of professional investment in the business you are trying to help build. As an in-house counsel to an investment entity, I find it richly rewarding to see our successes grow through the wonderful businesses we have spent a lot of time on as partners.

If existent, can you talk about you or your company’s efforts on renewability, sustainability, or other environmentally friendly activities?

Pasudeco is unique in the sense that our investment focus is on supporting businesses that find real-world solutions to pollution, sustainability, and the challenges of automation and health and wellness.

To this end, we have initiated the process of being certified as a B Corporation by B Lab, hopefully with the result being that our company is confirmed to meet their stringent social sustainability, environmental performance, accountability, and public transparency standards.

Last year, we presented a proposal – unanimously approved by our shareholders – to introduce an amendment to our by-laws where the company, its board of directors, and officers agree to prioritise considerations of the corporation’s ability to create a positive impact on society and the environment.