Bain scores three wins at AVCJ Awards

A total of 16 prizes were presented, including – for the first time – a responsible investment award for excellence in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) arena. Pacific Equity Partners took that honor for Manuka Health. Affinity Equity Partners, ChrysCapital Partners, Sequoia Capital China, Japan Industrial Partners, Jungle Ventures, Hahn & Company, and Mercury Capital were among the other winners. The AVCJ Special Achievement Award went to Dan Carroll, who was instrumental in establishing the TPG Capital business in Asia.

Collecting the firm of the year award with Jonathan Zhu, his co-head of Asia, David Gross-Loh noted that 2018 has been the year of the cross-border deal for Bain. The firm’s deal and exit prizes were for Toshiba Memory Corporation, a complex global transaction originated out of Japan, and Carver Korea, which was sold to Unilever following a Korea-to-China growth strategy executed alongside Goldman Sachs. Two other significant deals saw Bain acquire US-based World Wide Packaging and merge it with a Chinese peer and then buy Trans Maldivian Airways with a Chinese strategic partner.

“This is something that in the last 10 years I think has been more of an idea – that there be true cross-border transactions involving each of these geographies,” said Gross-Loh. “It is gradually becoming a reality and it’s something we think is going to be an interesting feature of the Asian private equity market for years to come.”

Cross-border strategies also featured strongly in the success of two Australian GPs, Quadrant Private Equity and Mercury Capital. Quadrant’s firm of the year credentials were based on a quickfire fundraise and trade sale exits from Icon Group, Zip Industries, and The Real Pet Food Company, with money multiples of 3.2x, 3.3x, and 3.4x, respectively. Marcus Darville, a managing partner at the firm, observed that expansion from Australia into Asia helped bring some of those returns through.

Mercury claimed the mid-cap exit prize for Novotech Holdings, a clinical trials provider that was sold to TPG Capital for a 15.7x return. The private equity firm helped Novotech boost its presence throughout the region. “Novotech is a fantastic example of what we like to see in Australia, which is a business headquartered in Australia but with a growth option into Asia,” said Chris Criddle, a partner at Mercury.

The other exit of the year award – for IPOs – went to Pinduoduo, a three-year-old Chinese social e-commerce company that raised $1.6 billion in its US offering. Two early investors in the company, Gaorong Capital and Lightspeed China Partners, were on hand to collect the trophy. James Mi, a founding partner at Lightspeed, paid tribute to Pinduoduo founder Colin Huang, whom he has known for 14 years and seen create three start-ups.

“When he came to me and said he wanted to work on a third company and make a big impact, the idea he had was totally different from Pinduoduo. I said I wasn’t sure about that model, so he changed it and focused on e-commerce. Everyone thought there was no opportunity because of Taobao, JD.com, and others, but he made it happen,” said Mi. “At the end of the day, it’s the entrepreneurs who really make the magic.”

This theme of entrepreneurial endeavor was echoed by healthcare specialist Sanjiv Kaul of ChrysCapital who was named private equity and venture capital professional of the year. He dedicated the award to “all the entrepreneurs of India who dare to dream big and strive to create global a best-in-class play in spite of the challenging local ecosystem,” while also acknowledging the strong company culture that has helped deliver 82 investments and 67 exits to date.

The AVCJ Special Achievement Award recognizes an individual who has distinguished himself or herself over a long period of time in facilitating the growth of the industry. Carroll’s contribution was turning TPG Asia from a four-person operation with a $100 million fund into a business with 40 professionals across seven offices, while raising a total of five funds with $7 billion in committed capital. Deals included several of the breakthrough restructurings from the post-Asian financial crisis period, notably Korea Exchange Bank.

Carroll paid tribute to Bill Hambrecht and Ta-Lin Hsu for convincing a reluctant Stanford Business School graduate that his future lay in Asia, working for H&Q Asia Pacific, not Silicon Valley. He also recalled a breakfast meeting with David Bonderman in 1994 at which the TPG founding partner shared his vision for Asia with Carroll who initially “thought he was crazy” for wanting to expand into the region, given the strength of the firm’s North America business.

“It has been an amazing journey for the industry,” Carroll added. “I have a pitch book going back to the early 1990s that is all about China and the future of Asia and I think that has turned out to be largely true - half of the deals done in Asia are in China. But it is extraordinary to see the scale the industry has taken on.”

The AVCJ Awards took place on the eve of the 2018 AVCJ Forum, which is being held in Hong Kong from November 13-15. For more information, please go to www.avcjforum.com. For further details on how the awards winners were chosen, please go to www.avcjforum.com/awards.

The winners in full:

• Fundraising of the Year – Venture Capital: Sequoia Capital China Venture Fund VII (Sequoia Capital China)
• Fundraising of the Year – Mid Cap: Japan Industrial No.5 Investment Enterprise (Japan Industrial Partners)
• Fundraising of the Year – Large Cap: Affinity Asia Pacific Fund V (Affinity Equity Partners)
  Deal of the Year – Early Stage Technology: Deskera (Jungle Ventures)
• Deal of the Year – Late Stage Technology: Ant Financial (Baillie Gifford/BlackRock/Canada Pension Plan Investment Board/The Carlyle Group/General Atlantic/GIC Private/Janchor Partners/Khazanah Nasional/Primavera Capital Group/Sequoia Capital/Silver Lake/T. Rowe Price/Temasek Holdings/Warburg Pincus)
• Deal of the Year – Mid Cap: Joy Rent a Car (Hahn & Company)
• Deal of the Year – Large Cap: Toshiba Memory Corporation (Bain Capital/Innovation Network Corporation of Japan/Development Bank of Japan/Apple/Dell/Kingston/Seagate)
• Exit of the Year – IPO: Pinduoduo (Gaorong Capital/Cathay Capital Private Equity/IDG Capital/Lightspeed China Partners/Sequoia Capital China/Tencent Holdings/Sun Vantage Investment)
• Exit of the Year – Mid Cap: Novotech Holdings (Mercury Capital)
• Exit of the Year – Large Cap: Carver Korea (Bain Capital/Goldman Sachs)
• PE & VC Professional of the Year: Sanjiv Kaul (ChrysCapital Partners)
• Responsible Investment Award: Manuka Health (Pacific Equity Partners)
• Operational Value Add: Qingdao Haier (KKR)
• Firm of the Year – Mid Cap: Quadrant Private Equity
• Firm of the Year – Large Cap: Bain Capital
• AVCJ Special Achievement Award: Daniel E. Carroll

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