Investments and Portfolio Management in Private Equity and SWF

Created a year ago in Business / Sectors

Held the role of Associate Director, Portfolio Development (Investments Group) At Temasek International (Private Equity / SWF of Singapore) during 12/’16 – 01/’21

Led deals/ engagements as a member of special situations investments team focused on a mix of new venture/ platform building, complex M&A deals, restructuring, carve-outs, and turnarounds in portfolio companies. Led cross-functional teams to establish new businesses, capital markets and transformative initiatives (TMT, Retail, FMCG, Business Services & Industrials)
Investments in Special situations
 Digital technology venture building: Investment into a large technology player; design and execution of JV for building Asia Pacific business, majority owned by Temasek, including carve-out of Asia Pacific business; business focus on Cloud, Data analytics and AI transformation.
 Successful turnaround of ~$1b sales multi-format retailer: 26+ months on secondment to portfolio company in a hands-on ‘COO/ operating partner’ role to drive performance improvement of the loss-making company to EBITDA positive stage; revitalized cash flow generation via operational transformation & business development.
­ Restructuring & Strategy: Shutdown loss-making business units; closed unviable 20+ stores, new M&A/partnership initiatives, board governance, investor relations, capital raising.
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Partnerships & BD: Led all aspects of partnerships & BD for large/strategic deals – (a) Led competitive bidding process to win highly profitable partnership to takeover 8+ new stores in remote locations with potential to add incremental +20% to EBITDA. (b) Competitive bidding process for local franchising of global convenience store chain
­ Digital transformation: Launched e-commerce delivery for omnichannel with digital/social media initiatives to grow store sales e.g., digital coupons for grow footfalls, improve in-store experience; set up digital marketing unit; established business case on big data analytics & loyalty.
­ Margin expansion: 800bps expansion in gross margin over 18 months – granular pricing for 20,000+ SKUs over 100+ locations; re-negotiations with top 100 suppliers
­ Cost reduction: Rental re-negotiations with landlords, reduction of FTE and services costs
­ Working capital: Freed up cash though (i) 40% reduction in inventory, while growing sales (ii) reduced aging inventory (iii) increased days of credit through supplier re-negotiations (iv) supply-chain re-design e.g., built new algorithms for automatic ordering for replenishing ~70% of volume; built single-pick inventory model to reduce slow-moving inventory; reduced overall logistics costs.
­ Capability building: Conducted hands-on workshops on negotiation & digital marketing.
 Korean hypermarket retailer: Crafting omni-channel digital strategy and value creation initiatives
 LBO - Chinese “new retail” company: Due diligence, competitive and operational benchmarking
­ Due diligence for a leveraged buyout of a large, big-box retailer with strong fresh-foods capabilities
­ Deep dive into competitive landscape of the technology-led, fresh-focused modern retail formats evolving in China, and into strategy & operations of target company.
 Telco market structure: Evaluated impact of 4th operator entry & mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in Asia Pacific, and impact on competitive landscape, industry structure and portfolio cos.
 Industry-shaping industrial M&A: Feasibility, synergy, and execution approach for 2 multi-$b companies in industrial sector in Singapore
 Debt-stress modelling: Conducted financial stress-tests for portfolio companies for GFC-like scenarios to identify companies at risk, and recommended actions to reduce debt towers.
 Leading FMCG company: Value creation opportunities and investor relations best practices
 Review of underperforming assets in the portfolio, including significant stakes in listed companies
Organizational leadership
 Artificial Intelligence: Planning & execution of global A.I. conference focused on analytics-enabled products and services involving start-ups, corporates and investment funds with global experts and top technology VCs.
 Temasek CEO Roundtable: Supported planning and execution of Temasek Roundtable, an annual event to engage over 100 of Singapore’s top CEOs and Chairmen on senior management topics.
 Industry Economics & Competitive Strategy: Crafted a new training program for Investment teams across all local & international offices; conducted in-classroom & on-web sessions; received training score of 4.8/5.0
 Recruitments for Associate to Asc. Director hires on key competencies, led training initiatives.