Bain Capital wins Firm of the Year at 2012 AVCJ Awards

Bain Capital was named Firm of the Year at the 2012 AVCJ Private Equity & Venture Capital Awards - Asia while Roy Kuan, managing partner at CVC Capital Partners, picked up the Private Equity Professional of the Year prize and Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia (MSPEA) won Private Equity Deal of the Year.

Bain's award, collected by Managing Director Lihong Wang, came in recognition of a 12-month period in which the firm closed its second Asia fund at $2.3 billion and made several significant investments, including the $2.1 billion acquisition of restaurant chain Skylark and a $1 billion joint venture deal for Jupiter Shop Channel, both in Japan.

CVC has been similarly active, with six investments and two exits in the last year. Kuan personally led the $644 million buyout of Hong Kong Broadband, while the Asia team committed capital to the likes of Venturepharma Group, C.Banner International, Asia Health Century, KFC Holdings and Technopro. "This is really a reflection of our team's efforts in completing so many deals and I am happy to receive this award on their behalf," Kuan said.

Homer Sun, chief investment officer at MSPEA, collected the deal of the year prize for his firm's $300 million investment in Tianhe Chemicals Group, singled out as a strong example of proprietary deal sourcing. "We are honored to partner with one of China's leading specialty chemicals companies, which has developed formidable R&D barriers to entry over two decades," he said.

The exit of the year category was closely fought, with Navis Capital Partners' King's Safetywear trade sale overcoming the likes of CVC and Standard Chartered Private Equity's exit from Infastech and Unison Capital's secondary sale of Akindo Sushiro to Permira. Nick Bloy, co-managing partner at the Malaysia-based GP, said he was surprised but extremely proud to accept the award.

"King's was one of those unique deals that come along once in a lifetime," he said. "I wish we had more of these every year."Navis took King's private in 2008 and completed the bolt-on acquisition of Australia's biggest safety footwear manufacturer before selling to Honeywell late last year. The return multiple was 4-5x and the IRR was over 50%.

The awards ceremony also saw David Kim, partner at PAG, collect the Fundraising of the Year prize for PAG's $2.5 billion debut private equity fund, while Hans Tung, partner at Qiming Venture Partners, collect the Venture Capital Deal of the Year award for his firm's $200 million investment in smart phone maker Xiaomi alongside IDG Capital Partners, Morningside Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Beijing ShunWei VC, DST Advisors and Temasek Holdings.

Sanjeev Aggarwal, senior managing partner at Indian GP Helion Venture Partners, was named Venture Capital Professional of the Year. Unable to attend the ceremony due to the Diwali festival, he nevertheless sent a message of thanks, describing the award as "testament of emergence of venture capital from India" as well as to the efforts of the Helion team.

The final prize of the evening was the AVCJ Special Achievement Award, given at the discretion of the AVCJ Editorial Board. It went to Lewis Rutherfurd, co-founder of Inter-Asia Venture Management, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary of continuous operation in the region. Inter-Asia was one of the founder investors in Asian Venture Capital Journal back in 1987. 

"We started AVCJ so that firms could raise money," Rutherfurd said. "The target was the LPs and we were hoping they would read it and be interested in what everyone was doing. There were barely 100 participants to start with but we know from the stats how successful the industry has become."

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• Topics
• Investments
• Fundraising
• Exits
• Performance
• AVCJ Awards
• Bain Capital Asia
• CVC Capital Partners
• Helion Ventures
• Qiming Venture Partners