"Positioning Asia to Take the Global Lead "

Saturday, November 8, 2008

9.00-16.30

Park Hyatt Philadelphia at the Bellevue
Broad and Walnut Streets
Philadelphia, PA 19102

The website is under construction.

Panels

Investment Banking - Turbo-charged for Growth: Investment Opportunities as Asia enters the Global Frontier

M&A in Asia has turned a corner in recent years, becoming a key component of corporate strategy in the region as industry consolidations and cross-border deals increase at a fast pace. The booming Asian economies have developed companies with global aspirations, driving regional M&A activity to an unprecedented level. To emerge a winner, top business leaders need to tackle increasingly complicated issues from changing regulatory policies to integrating cultural differences. This panel aims to explore where M&A opportunities lie, assess the impact of the sub-prime crisis on the deal landscape, and identify major challenges facing corporate decision makers in Asia.

Investment Management - The dinamics in Asia : the potential of investment market

What is the influence of subprime crisis to the Asian investment market and the signal to the future of Asia? Where is the power of economy and politics heading to in Asian region? Can we explain and foresee the tide of the power from investment perspective?

Today, Asian nations are apparently heading to the serious aging society. Accordingly, the substitutional solution for conventional social welfare system will be required in Asian society in the near future to tackle the aging problem. The citizens in the Asian countries can no longer only rely on the government. Like in US, mutual fund industry is expected to play the key role also in Asia. Then, how is the transformation of the investment market going to be achieved? Given these matters of deep interest, the panel will aim to dissect the potential of investment market in Asian region given the potential of economic growth in Asia as well as the stagnant market such as Japan.

Real Estate - Boom or Bubble - an Asian puzzle

When the U.S. experienced severe economic recession arising from its subprime crisis, Asia's real estate market seems to be less affected. For years, many Asian countries have experienced significant property market boom with many international investors and developers looking into Asia to find attractive returns. However, many investors doubt whether Asia's property market is sustainable given a slowing down global economy. Will the current property crisis in U.S.and previous property bubble in other Asian countries be repeated again in Asia? This panel aims to explore where the risks of the property market are and how to prevent severe property market crisis in Asia.

Speakers: Pietro A. Doran, Donald L. ("Skip") Conover

Private Equity - How to deal with challenge of making investment across Asia

With relatively strong economic growth across the region, development of more mature capital markets, and a growing acceptance of private equity as an asset class, investing in Asia has become extremely attractive and profitable for many firms in the private equity industry in recent years.  With the recent subprime crisis in the US, more and more financial sponsors are seeking to ramp up their activity in Asia.  As these firms enter into the Asian private equity market, there are challenges to overcome.  PE firms are learning to adjust to different levels of transparency standards of Asia firms, minority investment strategy, role of government and regulation, and exit through developing capital market.  This panel aims to look at the trends, challenges and strategies private equity firms will need to take on in order to succeed in the Asian market.

Venture Capital - Fueling Growth: Contrasting Investment Strategies Across Asia

When the term Venture Capital is mentioned, many people would relate it to technology or web 2.0 start-ups that they are familiar with since the dot.com boom. Perhaps lesser known, in Asia during the first two quarters of year 2008, $1.45 billion has been raised for regional infrastructure funds and that amount is already approaching the $1.84 billion raised for all of 2007. In fact, many venture capitalists are seeking different ways to diversify their investment strategies and they are taking the advantage of countries like China, Korea, Taiwan and Japan where there are increasing number of companies having interesting business model and technology which potentially can be expanded to global market . From high-tech to green energy, venture capitalists are exploring different fields and one may ask: Is Asia the new breeding ground from a fresh boom of venture capital growth? Join us in exploring the opportunities and potentials of Venture Capital in Asia.

Consulting

In this highly globalized world, more and more international M&As are made by Asian firms. Once smaller and more passive players in International Economy, Asian firms are transforming themselves into highly competitive leaders in a number of industries and M&A is becoming one of the most popular tools for their fast growth. In this ambitious and adventurous paths of Asian firms, management consulting firms are playing a key role in helping the planning and executions of those international M&As. This panel will provide us with a closer look for the role of consultancies in the M&As by Asian firms.

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