Ms Kong Sooi Lin has been actively involved in the full range of capital markets, corporate advisory and banking activities for more than 20 years. As Director and Head of Investment Banking for the CIMB Investment Bank, her present scope of duties include coverage of the region with Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam as key markets. Her advisory expertise spans the entire spectrum of equity and debt markets including Residential Mortgage Backed Securities, Mergers & Acquisitions, Sponsorships of IPO issues.

Prior to joining CIMB, Sooi Lin worked in Bumiputra Merchant Banks Berhad, where she was involved in debt issues and market banking products to corporates in Malaysia.

Sooi Lin graduated with honours in Commerce from the University of New South Wales, Australia.

Yvonne Cox is Managing Director, Singapore for Watson Wyatt Worldwide, a leading global consulting firm on people and financial issues, headquartered in Washington DC.

Yvonne is also one of Watson Wyatt’s global account managers, overseeing several of the firm’s global relationships with large multinational corporations. She has a strong background in working with clients and 25 years of management and consulting experience in a broad range of industry sectors. Her areas of expertise include strategy implementation, change management, talent management, competency modelling, executive assessment and coaching, and succession planning. She has assisted major clients in the development and clarification of strategy; conducted change management interventions to support mergers and acquisitions, new strategy implementation, and re-engineering initiatives.

Yvonne has previously held positions as national practice director, office practice leader and senior consultant in Watson Wyatt’s Human Capital Group (HCG) Practice in Canada. She has also served in major assignments in Asia, North and South America, and Europe.

Rohit Sipahimalani is a Managing Director and head of  Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking Division for South East Asia, based in Singapore. He assumed his current role in 2007, prior to which he was  co-Head of Morgan Stanley’s Asia Pacific M&A business, based in Hong Kong. He has worked on transactions in several Asian countries, including China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and India. He has been involved in several high-profile  M&A deals in Asia including advising the Shinhan Group in Korea on the creation of a financial holding company and its joint ventures with BNP in 2001; advising Huawei on its joint venture with 3Com for its enterprise data networking business in 2003; advising TCL on its acquisition of Thomson's global TV business in 2004; advising Excelcomindo, an Indonesian wireless operator, on its sale to Telekom Malaysia in 2004; advising Oracle on its acquisition of a controlling stake in i-Flex in India in 2005; advising KKR on its acquisition of Flextronics Software in India in 2006; advising PSA on its acquisition of a 20% stake in Hutchison Ports in 2006; advising Stats Chippac on a buyout of the company by Temasek in 2007;  and advising Temasek on the sale of Tuas Power to the Huaneng Group in 2008

Rohit has also led several financing transactions during his career with Morgan Stanley. Key transactions include ICICI’s $315MM ADR IPO in 1999, Wipro’s $130MM ADR IPO in 2000, Bangkok Bank’s $900MM follow on equity offering in 2003, Tata Consultancy Services’ $1.2bn IPO in 2004,  51jobs’ $85MM NASDAQ IPO in 2004 and WNS’s $255MM IPO on the NYSE in 2006

Rohit has been with Morgan Stanley since July 1997. He joined Morgan Stanley’s office in Mumbai, India, and moved to Hong Kong in 1999, where he spent 8 years before taking up his current role in Singapore in 2007. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, he was an Engagement Manager with McKinsey & Company from 1994-1997, where he spent time in their Mumbai, London and Chicago offices.  Rohit started his career at Citibank in India in 1989 and worked there from 1989 to 1994

Rohit graduated in Economics from St. Stephens College, Delhi in 1987 and received an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, in India, in 1989

Jake is a corporate finance Partner in the Singapore office.  He joined the practice in 1998 and was admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales in January 2000, joining the corporate finance team in London. Jake moved to the Singapore office in September 2005.

Jake has extensive experience of cross border acquisitions, disposals and joint venture arrangements both in Europe and in SE Asia and the Indian sub-continent.  He also has considerable experience in equity capital markets work, including acting both for financial advisers and for UK and non-UK companies carrying out initial public offerings and reverse takeovers on AIM as well as on various other Exchanges in SE Asia.  His clients include a number of multi-national corporations such as HSBC, AXA and Nestlé as well as numerous major Malaysian corporations, including TM International Berhad.

Jake speaks and writes fluent French and Italian.

His recent experience includes:

M&A
Advising TM International Berhad on the buy out of Dr B.K. Modi from Spice Communications Limited and the proposed $2.2 billion merger of Spice with Idea Cellula

Eng Ping leads the Transaction Tax Unit at Ernst & Yong Malaysia, and has over 12 years of professional experience (including 10 years in tax) and specialises in tax planning for mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and advising Malaysia inbound investments and outbound investments. Her clients include private equity funds and multinational corporations. She also advocates at tax appeals before the Special Commissioners of Income Tax.

Eng Ping plays an active role in thought leadership and regularly contributes articles on tax. She has written on topics such as tax administration and incentives in Malaysia, and structured finance products including Islamic finance. She also speaks regularly at E&Y and external seminars.

Eng Ping is a tax agent approved by the Minister of Finance, Malaysia; a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria,Australia; Advocate and Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya; and Member of the Malaysia Institute of Taxation. Eng Ping's specialisation covers the areas of Mergers and acquisitions including due diligence, tax structuring, documentation review, Malaysian inbound and outbound investments and Group reorganisations and restructuring.

Jennifer has extensive tax experience both in Australia and in Malaysia. Her experience in Australia includes the audit, accounting, corporate secretarial, regulatory and tax work on a range of clients and entities including financial services entities, retirement funds, pharmacists, construction companies, hotels, trading companies, etc.

In Malaysia, her experience includes advising clients on tax matters relating to income tax, real property gains tax, stamp duty, service tax, applicable tax incentives and double tax treaties. She has also been extensively involved in numerous financial services clients and assignments as well as structured finance and international tax.

Jennifer acquired her Bachelor of Economics with the Monash University; Melbourne, Australia; her Diploma of Applied Finance with the Securities Institute of Australia. She is also a member of the professional bodies, Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ACA) and the Securities Institute of Australia (SIA).

Paran Puvanesan is an Executive Director with PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services – Deals Group, which is primarily responsible for acquisition and divestment advisory work.

Paran recently returned from a 2 year secondment to our London firm. He has more than 13 years of experience with the firm of which almost 9 years have been dedicated to Transactions related work, with deal experiences spanning Europe and Asia. Paran has been involved in providing a broad range of mergers and acquisitions services, namely, industry strategic assessments, business and financial due diligence, accounting and tax structuring advisory work. He has also project managed a restructuring exercise of a public listed company and evaluated rescue schemes for ailing listed companies.

Paran's industry exposure includes consumer products, industrial products, construction projects, telecommunication and information technology where he primarily services corporate clients. He has also worked on assignments servicing Private Equity clients of the London firm. Prior to joining the advisory practice, he spent 4 years in the audit practice focusing on the transportation and plantation sectors.

Paran acquired his qualification of BA (Hons) Accounting and Financial Management with the University of Sheffield, United Kindgo. He is also a member of the Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA); and a Fellow Member of the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (FCCA).

David Patrick Eich is the senior partner in the Hong Kong office of Kirkland & Ellis International LLP and leads the Firm's global private equity practice in Asia, representing financial sponsors and their affiliates in multi-jurisdictional leveraged buyouts, growth equity investments, fund formations and other complex private equity transactions.   

Mr. Eich has represented in Asia, among other private equity funds, Advantage Partners, Audax Group, Bain Capital, Bear Stearns Merchant Banking, Blue Point Capital Partners, Credit Suisse Private Equity Asia, Golden Gate Capital, Limetree Capital Partners, MKW Capital Partners, Oaktree Capital Management, Paul Capital and Sequoia Capital.

Mr. Eich was recognized by Legal Business magazine as one of five private equity lawyers in the "Finest 50 Rainmakers of 2004."  Mr. Eich was also named one of the "Hot 100 " lawyers in 2005 by The Lawyer magazine.  Asian-Counsel magazine recognized Kirkland & Ellis for "Deal of the Year 2006" for its work on the $2.1 billion takeover of OYL Industries Berhad, a Malaysian public company, by Daikin Industries Ltd., Japan.  The Lawyer named Kirkland "International Law Firm of the Year" in July 2007.  In 2008, Asia Legal Business recognized Mr. Eich’s Kirkland team in the Southeast Asia Law Awards for the "Singapore Deal of the Year" and the "Singapore M&A Deal of the Year" in connection with the $2.3 billion going-private transaction of Kirkland’s client dual-listed STATS ChipPAC Ltd. in 2007. The Legal 500 noted in 2008 that led by Mr. Eich Kirkland “has brought its world-leading private equity practice to Hong Kong,” and in 2008 the Chambers & Partners Asia Guide cited Eich and the firm’s private equity fund formation practice in Hong Kong as “the one to watch” and “set to become a major investment player in the region.”

Mr. Eich is a founding sponsor of the Private Equity Institute at Tsinghua University and a member of its Executive Committee; he is also a founding sponsor of the London Business School Private Equity Institute and a member of its Global Advisory Board.  He has written and spoken about private equity widely, including in regular lectures about private equity to classes in the LBS M.B.A. degree program.  In the fall of 2008, Mr. Eich will be teaching “Fundamentals of Leveraged Buyouts” at the School of Law - Boalt Hall, University of California, Berkeley, where he has previously been a guest lecturer on Asian private equity and Chinese M&A.

Prior to his work in Asia, Mr. Eich was involved in establishing the firm’s offices in London and Munich, now known for their strength in European and global private equity transactions.  He began his career with Kirkland in Chicago in 1994 after completing a federal district court clerkship for the Hon. Robert W. Warren, Senior United States District Judge (E.D. Wi.).

Siva has more than 12 years of experience in tax compliance and tax consultancy work for individuals, local corporations, multinationals and financial institutions.

The industries that he has extensive experience in tax consultancy work include fund management, bio-technology, manufacturing, trading, healthcare, e-commerce and international shipping.  He also has experience in handling transfer pricing issues associated with global trading, shared service centre operations and other related party transactions.

Siva is currently the chairman of Horwath International’s Asia Pacific Tax Committee and a member of the Horwath International Tax Committee. He has conducted several seminars on international tax to Horwath tax specialists in the Asia Pacific region as well as to members of the public. He is the consultant editor of CCH’s Singapore Master Tax Guide manual as well as one of the authors of the Worldwide Business Tax Guide published by CCH.

Prior to joining Horwath First Trust, Siva worked in Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young in Singapore.

Experience

Highlights of Siva’s experience include the following:

Qualifications:

Tan Sri Dato' Azman Hashim is Chairman of the AmBank Group – a banking and financial services group.

He has being involved in banking since 1960, when he returned from Australia having qualified as a Chartered Accountant and joined the Central Bank of Malaysia and served there until 1964. He practised  as a Chartered Accountant in Azman Wong Salleh & Co. from 1964 to 1971. He then joined the Board of Malayan Banking Berhad in 1966. He was its Executive Director from 1971 to 1980, appointed Executive Chairman of Kwong Yik Bank Berhad in 1980 till 1982 when he became Chairman of the AmBank Group until today.

Tan Sri Azman is Chairman of the following:

and President of:

He is also a Member of the:

and Leader of the ASEAN-Japanese Business Meeting (Malaysia Committee, Keizai Doyukai).

He is Chairman of the AmGroup Foundation and the ECM Libra Foundation and a Trustee of the Malaysian Liver Foundation and Yayasan Perpaduan Negara. He is also Pro-Chancellor, Open University Malaysia and Member, International Advisory Panel, Bank Negara Malaysia International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF). He was awarded The Order of The Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon by his Majesty The Emperor of Japan in 1987 and conferred the Medal of the Order of Australia (A.O.) by the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia and Chancellor of the order of Australia in July 2008.

He was:

Besides being a Chartered Accountant, he is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators and a Fellow of the Institute of Bankers Malaysia.

Recreation