Mezzanine Financing in Emerging Markets

An EMPEA Professional Development Webcast

Join experts from Darby Private Equity, DEG, NBK Capital and Vantage Mezzanine for this EMPEA Professional Development Webcast as we discuss the role of mezzanine financing in emerging markets.

Key topics discussed, included:

What is mezzanine, and how does its practice differ in emerging markets compared to developed markets?
What are the differences / similarities in how mezzanine is practiced across each emerging market region?
How big is the emerging markets mezzanine industry, and how has it performed?
How should LPs think about mezzanine strategies?
Where are opportunities for mezzanine investments over the next 10 years?

Learn more about the emerging markets mezzanine industry in EMPEA's special edition report, Private Credit Solutions: Mezzanine Financing in Emerging Markets.

EMPEA Members: Log in to access the full webcast recording and presentation.

Speakers Include

Amjad Ahmad
Senior Managing Director and Head of Alternative Investments, NBK Capital

Amjad Ahmad is Head of Alternative Investments at NBK Capital, a leading middle market private equity and credit fund manager in the MENA region. He leads a firm with AuM of $750 million with offices in Dubai, Kuwait and Istanbul. He is also a board member of several portfolio companies in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. As a founding member, he has been instrumental in the firm’s development and growth. Amjad has 20 years of private equity, investment banking and management consulting experience with roles at UBS, Credit Suisse and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Amjad earned a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Hofstra University. He also attended the General Management Program at Harvard Business School and is a C.P.A.

Luc Albinski
Managing Partner, Vantage Mezzanine

Luc is a director of Vantage Mezzanine and a member of the Fund’s Investment Committee. His primary responsibility is the assessment, structuring, execution and post-transaction monitoring of mezzanine fund investments. Luc has played a key role in all eleven investments executed by Fund I and Fund II to date for a total of over R1.5 billion ($150 million).

Before joining Standard Bank, Luc spent time as a strategy consultant with Bain & Co. in Paris (1992) and with Accenture in Johannesburg (1993-94). After completing his MBA at INSEAD, he joined the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, in Washington DC. At the IFC, Luc spent time working on advisory and investment projects in a diverse range of countries including Brazil, Gabon, Poland, Romania, Bosnia and Moldova.

Luc returned to South Africa in 1998 and joined Brait, one of South Africa’s leading private equity firms. As a deal executive he was responsible for investments in the building materials, logistics, fine chemicals and luxury tourism sectors. Luc subsequently spent two years in Poland as the founder and CEO of a start-up employee benefits firm before returning to South Africa in 2002. Luc has a Masters of Business Administration from the INSEAD business school in Fontainebleau, France. He studied for his undergraduate economics degree at the Institute for Political Studies in Paris.

Joachim Schumacher
Senior Director, DEG

Joachim Schumacher is Senior Director responsible for investments in Africa and Latin America at DEG – Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG), the German development finance institution. Prior to joining DEG in 2002, Joachim Schumacher headed a team focuses on technology investments at TFG Venture Capital, a German venture capital management company, and worked in junior positions with Sal. Oppenheim and Deutsche Bank.

Joachim Schumacher holds a Masters Degree in Banking and Finance from the University of Cologne, Germany and is a CFA charterholder.

DEG is one of the largest European development finance institutions. It provides long term capital in form of debt, mezzanine and equity to private companies in developing and emerging markets in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe/Russia. DEG's objective is to generate a positive development impact through its investments while generating a risk-adjusted, sustainable return on its invested capital. In 2013, DEG made new commitments in excess of €1.4 billion. As of the end of 2013, DEG held a portfolio of €6.3 billion in more than 80 countries. DEG is a subsidiary of the KFW Banking Group, which is a AAA-rated German banking group, majority-owned by the German government.

Simon Sham
Managing Director, Darby Private Equity, Asia

Mr. Sham has been the Managing Director of the Darby Asia mezzanine team since March 2002. Mr. Sham has the primary responsibility in managing the day-to-day investment activities of the two Asia regional mezzanine funds under Darby’s management.

Mr. Sham has over 30 years of experience in mezzanine financing, corporate and investment banking in the emerging markets. Prior to joining Darby, Mr. Sham worked as a Director at Prudential Asia Infrastructure Investor and was responsible for the original, execution and exit of several large mezzanine infrastructure investments.

Prior to that, Mr. Sham was the Managing Director of the Global Energy & Utilities Group at CIBC World Markets in Hong Kong, and was a Director and Head of Infrastructure Finance in Asian Securitization & Infrastructure Assurance (Pte) Ltd. based in Singapore. Previously, he was the General Manager of the Hong Kong Representative Office of West Merchant Bank (WMB). Prior to joining WMB, Mr. Sham spent 13 years working for Citibank primarily as a senior investment professional in the project finance, corporate and investment banking areas in Hong Kong and Toronto.

Mr. Sham has a Bachelor of Civil Engineering & Management degree and an MBA degree from McMaster University. Mr. Sham holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and is also a Certified General Accountant (CGA).

Moderated By

Mike Casey
Director, Consulting Services, EMPEA

Michael Casey is a Director on EMPEA’s Consulting Services team, which he co-founded in 2013. The team supports fund managers and institutional investors with custom research and client-requested white papers. Mike spent his first two years with EMPEA in the Research Department.

Prior to joining EMPEA, Mike worked as an Associate at Ergo, advising corporate, financial and sovereign wealth investors exploring opportunities in emerging and frontier markets. He began his career working on strategy at the U.S. Department of Defense.

Mike received his M.A. in International Economics, with concentrations in International Finance and Emerging Markets, from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).