Congratulations to our award winners

As you can read on page 12, the awards were given on Monday night at an invitation-only dinner, which also signals the start of the AVCJ Forum 2011 and Private Equity Week - Asia.

As in the past, it was a challenging process to distill the most deserving nominees from a truly outstanding group. Our panel of judges, comprising some of Asia's most influential limited partners, played a big role in putting forward funds, deals and individuals for the shortlist. Their nominations and votes influenced 25% of the decision.

For the first time, the Asian private equity industry had a majority role in picking the winners, with online voting accounting for 50% of the totals. Finally, our editors, who tirelessly worked on the coordination, fact checked and interviewed knowledgeable people to ensure that accuracy and excellence is indeed recognized, account for 25% of the total votes.

In terms of the winners, Australia's Archer Capital and its Managing Director Peter Wiggs respectively took away the night's big awards - Firm of the Year and Private Equity Professional of the Year.

Baring Private Equity Asia took away the Fundraising of the Year award for its $2.4 billion fifth vehicle, while judges and voters alike favored Beijing Leader & Harvest Electric Technologies for Trade Sale of the Year. The joint deal between Affinity Equity Partners and Unitas Capital deserves recognition as one of China few foreign buyouts. And it might be the only foreign buyout that has been successfully exited in full to a strategic buyer.

Headland Capital Partners-invested Yonghui Superstores was named IPO of Year, having raised $416 million in a volatile market, and Unitas Capital picked up its second award - Deal of the Year - for its innovative investment in Hyva Holdings. Nexus India's Sandeep Singhal beat a powerhouse group of early-stage investors including longstanding industry heavyweights Promod Haque and Neil Shen, to take home Venture Capital Professional of the Year.

Finally, the AVCJ Awards recognized the contribution of Philip Bilden, who will retire from HarbourVest Partners. Over the years, Philip has evolved into a leading figure in Asian private equity, sitting on the boards on a number of firms including Archer Capital, Bain Capital Asia, CHAMP, KKR Asia, Pacific Equity Partners, TPG Asia and Unitas Capital. He has also championed Asian private equity in various conferences, including many of AVCJ's events, for which we are grateful.

He will be missed by all of those who have worked with him. We wish him good luck.

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• Topics
• Performance
• AVCJ Awards
• AVCJ Private Equity & Venture Forum