FINANCING ASIA'S GROWTH

It has been slightly more than 10 years since the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997. During this period, Asian markets across multiple nations including Japan have grown tremendously. Asian businesses have become increasingly integrated with the global businesses. Current economic outlook in US appears weak due to the slowing consumer spending. Asian growth is looked upon as a source of stability to overcome the slowdown.

What are the key drivers behind this growth? How are the Asian companies in their quest for new markets, resources, and capabilities acquiring resources? The Finance panel brings together distinguished industry leaders who will share their experiences in investing in Asian companies. They belong to private equity and venture capital firms and possess detailed yet bird's eye view of the Asian growth story. We have an opportunity to analyze the Asian growth from their lenses.

Prof. Gautam Kaul

John C. and Sally S. Morley Professor of Finance, 1998-current

Prof. Gautam Kaul's research has focused on the behavior of stock and bond prices in the US and other developed countries. His specific interests include asset pricing models, market microstructure, and the time-series behavior of stock prices. He has recently used computer-intensive methodologies to gauge the effectiveness of trading strategies commonly proposed on Wall Street and the academic literature.

He has been the Associate Dean at the University of Michigan from 1997 to 2002 and Chair/Member of Doctoral Thesis Committees since 1985 – virtually every year on multiple dissertation committees. Some of his scholarly honors and awards include Who’s Who in Economics, International Who’s Who of Professionals and Senior Faculty Research Award.

Prof. Kaul has been teaching at the University of Michigan since 1985. He has teaching experience in Principles of Corporate Finance and Banking and Financial Institutions as the graduate level and Empirical Methods in Finance at the Ph.D. level. In addition he also has experience in executive education at Citibank Custom Program and A.T.Kearney “Essentials of Business” Custom Program. He has won the Global MBA Excellence in Teaching Award in 2004 and the MBA Excellence in Teaching Award in 1996.

Prof. Kaul completed his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago and the fellow program at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India.

Mr. Nobuhiko Masuto

President & CEO of GCA America Corporation

Topic: “The Changing Japanese M&A Market”

Mr. Masuto is President & CEO of GCA America Corporation, a wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary of GCA Co. Ltd. and is currently based in New York. For over 20 years, Mr. Masuto has been involved in a wide range of corporate finance activities including investment banking, private equity and structured financing in Japan, U.S. and Europe. He has extensive experience in advising on M&A, IPO, private placement and LBO financing transactions and also has principal experience in equity and mezzanine investments.

Prior to joining GCA, Mr. Masuto worked at Ripplewood Japan where he was responsible for origination and execution of buyout transactions. Prior to joining Ripplewood, Mr. Masuto worked as an investment banker for Daiwa Securities and Sumitomo Bank (currently known as Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation) Tokyo. During his career, he had the opportunity to establish Japan Equity Capital Inc., a private equity firm. Additionally, with Sumitomo, he spent over 8 years in London, focusing upon cross-border M&A transactions between Europe and Japan/U.S. and structured finance transactions for U.K. and Swiss blue-chip companies and municipals.

He is a visiting instructor at Kobe University’s business school and often is a speaker at M&A and private equity related seminars. He holds the Authorized Sales Representative and Internal Administrator certification issued by the Japanese Securities Dealers Association (“JSDA”) and the Financial Services Authority (“FSA”) in the U.K.

Mr. Masuto completed his Masters in Finance degree at the London Business School, University of London, and received his undergraduate degree from Keio University, where he majored in Law.

Mr. Bradley Lalonde

CEO and Co-Founder
Vietnam Partners LLC.

Topic: “ Vietnam: Financing growth through the emerging capital market”

Bradley Lalonde has been Chief Investment Officer and General Director of the Investment Manager (BVIM) since the company was established in January 2006 and has over 25 years in executive positions at Citibank in a variety of emerging market countries, including five years in Vietnam as Citibank’s CEO from 1994-1999.  During this time Mr. Lalonde headed Citibank’s corporate banking business, for which he accomplished a number of major transactions involving leading State Owned Enterprises.

Mr. Lalonde is a co-founder of, and Partner, in Vietnam Partners, the U.S. investment firm that is the joint venture partner with Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) in the Investment Manager. Mr. Lalonde sits on the board of directors of the Investment Manager.  Mr. Lalonde was also co-founder of the American Chamber of Commerce, where he served as its Chairman during the critical negotiations forming the US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement.

Mr. Lalonde holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University (1977) and an A.B. degree from the University of Michigan (1975).

Mr. Nicholas C. Howson

Assistant Professor,
University of Michigan Law School

Topic:"China's Capital Markets and Stock
Exchanges - Efficient Allocation of Capital for Growth"

Nicholas C. Howson is an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan Law School, and a graduate of Williams College (B.A., 1983) and the Columbia Law School (J.D., 1988). 

In 1988, Howson joined the New York-based international law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, and was elected partner of that firm in 1996.  Between 1988 and 2003, Howson worked out of the firm’s New York headquarters, and had extended postings in London, Paris and Beijing, finally as the managing partner of the firm’s China Practice based in Beijing.  In this period he acted for clients in precedent-setting corporate, securities, project finance and oil & gas exploration, production and development transactions, including the first debt offering by a Chinese SOE into the US capital markets (Sinochem, 1993 and 1995), the first SEC registered IPO on the New York Stock Exchange by a PRC-domiciled issuer (Shandong Huaneng Power Development, Inc., 1994), the first private placement of stock in a Chinese company limited by shares (George Soros’ purchase of 25% of Hainan Airlines Company, Inc., 1995), the Phillips Petroleum production sharing contract in the Bohai Bay (1998), and the first private equity investment in a non-SOE Chinese enterprise and exit into the capital markets (the Morgan Stanley-led investment into Mengniu Dairy, 2000).   

Howson writes and lectures widely on Chinese corporate and securities law topics, and has acted as a consultant to foreign foundations and think-tanks, and various Chinese administrative departments, in particular in connection with the PRC Company Law (2005), and the original PRC Securities Law (1999).  Before attending Columbia Law School, he spent two years (1983-5) as a graduate fellow at Shanghai’s Fudan University doing work in late Qing Dynasty Chinese literature.  In late 1988, he returned to China on a Ford Foundation fellowship to complete research at Beijing University in Qing penal law.    He taught Chinese law at the Harvard Law School in 2003-4, and was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at the Cornell Law School for 2004-5.   

Howson is a designated foreign arbitrator for the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) in Beijing, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, and serves on the Columbia Law School Board of Advisors; he is a past Chair of the Asian Affairs Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.  Professor Howson is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies.