The AVCJ Australia and New Zealand Private Equity & Venture Forum celebrated its tenth anniversary this year and was attended by over 270 industry professionals from 14 countries.
Australasian PE: Investment sanctuary in times of uncertainty
The Forum opened with a keynote address from Paul Bloxham of HSBC who gave a global economic update and examined Australia’s path beyond the mining investment boom. This was followed by Sebastiaan C. van den Berg of HarbourVest Partners leading a panel discussion focused on the global PE in 2013 and on Australasia’s role as an investment sanctuary in uncertain times.
Later in the morning, Andrew Thompson from KPMG moderated a session focusing on the hands-on approach required to strengthen corporate governance, improve business systems and processes, and provide access to business networks to drive value creation. The morning concluded with industry legend Thomas H. Lee from Lee Equity Partners delivering an entertaining and captivating speech on his years of PE deal-making experience.
During lunch, Joseph Skrzynski from Champ Private Equity chaired a panel debating the potential of coming elections in Indonesia and India to be disruptive economically. After lunch, Gerard Noonan from Media Super chaired an intriguing debate featuring Mark Carnegie, Peter Wiggs from Archer Capital and John Brakey from MLC, who argued opposing sides of the statement, “PE isn’t an asset class, it's illiquid and the fees are extortionate.” The afternoon concluded with John Haddock from Champ moderating a panel featuring Australian and New Zealand GPs discussing opportunities in the Australasian mid-market and industries that have the most potential to grow.
The evening’s gala dinner was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, overlooking the Sydney Harbor Bridge and Opera House and included a speech from Lindsay Tanner, Former Australian Minister for Finance and Former Member of the House of Representatives.
Day two opened with a panel of leading regional PE fund managers discussing how the consumer market is delivering investment opportunities in China, India and South-east Asia, and how Australian investors can access these markets. This was followed by a fundraising session examining what successful GPs have done to secure commitments from both global and domestic LPs.
The afternoon kicked-off with Kar Mei Tang from the Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association presenting the latest research on PE’s economic contribution to Australia. The conference concluded with a lively discussion from a group of LPs debating the benefits of investing in Australasia, what PE fund managers can do to better engage and attract domestic institutional investors, and the industries that provide the safest investment avenues with the best potential returns.
Stay tuned to this page for information about the next AVCJ Australia and New Zealand Forum taking place in Sydney in March, 2014.
Keynotes
Former Australian Minister for Finance and Former Member of the House of Representatives
