Former SCPE ASEAN head Bert Kwan joins Northstar

Kwan departed SCPE at the same time as CEO Joe Stevens amid reports that the firm would shutter its private equity business. They were instrumental in putting together a string of secondary transactions that took half of SCPE’s $5 billion in assets off the bank’s balance sheet. The ultimate objective was to raise a new fund from third-party investors, but this is no longer expected to happen.

Kwan joined SCPE in 2010, having previously spent 12 years with Lehman Brothers Private Equity in Hong Kong, New York and Silicon Valley.

"We have known Bert for a long time and we are now very excited to welcome him to Northstar.  With over 17 years of private equity experience, Bert is well positioned to further extend Northstar's capabilities across Southeast Asia," Patrick Walujo, co-founder and managing partner of Northstar, said in a statement.

Recent SCPE activity in Southeast Asia has focused strongly on Vietnam, with investments in children’s media platform N Kid – announced shortly after Kwan left the firm – and mobile e-wallet platform MoMo. Before that, it backed An Giang Plant Protection and restaurant operator Golden Gate in the country. Other investments from 2016 include Singapore-based food ingredients retailer Phoon Huat.

Northstar, which closed its fourth fund at $810 million in November 2015, invests in growth companies in Indonesia and to a lesser extent, other countries in Southeast Asia. In the past 12 months it has participated in a funding round for Indonesian ride-hailing and delivery platform Go-Jek, invested in hotel room marketplace MG Group and launched a take-private bid for Singapore-listed Innovalues.

Ashish Shastry, managing partner at Northstar, recently joined KKR as head of Southeast Asia.

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