Haynes and Boone, LLP Partner Albert Tan served as co-chair of the Fund Finance Association’s 3rd Annual Asia-Pacific Fund Finance Symposium in Hong Kong on September 25. Over 340 attendees registered for this symposium with the support of over 30 sponsors from PE funds, banks and law firms in the region.
As co-chair of the symposium, he conducted a keynote interview with Goodwin Gaw, chairman of Gaw Capital Partners, in which they discussed: Gaw’s passion for real estate and his leadership principles; how he executes on his vision for Gaw Capital; the challenges and opportunities of Asia private equity; and how his fund uses subscription financing. Gaw Capital Partners is one of the largest Asia-based private equity real estate firms and the 16th largest private equity real estate firm in the world, with over $23 billion assets under management in Asia, Europe and North America.
Additionally, at a pre-symposium “Fund Finance 101” workshop, Tan served as an instructor, along with Nick Mitra, managing director of Natixis; Mary Touchstone, head of Fund Finance for Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett LLP; and Jan Sysel, co-head of Fund Finance for Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP. Together, they discussed basics structures and key features and differences of Subscription Credit Facilities, Hybrid Facilities and NAV (net asset value) Facilities.
Tan is co-chair of the firm’s Fund Finance Practice Group and serves on the firm’s Board of Directors, Partners Compensation Committee and Strategic Growth Committee. He regularly represents investment and commercial banks in connection with fund financings for private equity funds in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America. He frequently speaks on fund finance at legal and business seminars, hosted by, among others, Private Equity International, PERE, Privcap and Institutional Real Estate, Inc.
Tan is recognized as a leading practitioner in international private equity by the Euromoney Expert Guide (Legal Media Group) in 2012 and a Trailblazer in Banking, Finance and Capital Markets by the National Law Journal in 2019, for his efforts in structuring some of the first subscription financings to real estate private equity funds and infrastructure funds in Asia.
Tan also helped organize the 1st and 2nd Annual Asia-Pacific Fund Finance Symposiums in Hong Kong. At these events, Tan explained that FFA was created: to bring together participants in the global fund finance market — lenders, law firms, fund sponsors, and investors — with the goal of educating and building broad consensus on the policy, legal and regulatory matters affecting the fund finance market. Most importantly, Tan added, the FFA advocates on behalf of the fund finance market, sharing market developments and developing relationships among the members and participants.
Fund financing started as primarily a real estate private equity financing product in North America but has become a global private equity financing product. Fund financing now is commonly used by private equity funds in buyout, private debt, real estate, infrastructure and natural resources, among others alternative asset classes, in North America and South America, Europe, and increasingly in the Asia-Pacific region.