Hong Kong Summit Infrastructure Debt Forum 2019

Frederic Blanc-Brude is the Director of EDHECinfra, an index, analytics and research provider specialised in the provision of unlisted infrastructure equity and debt market indices and custom benchmarks. Before joining EDHEC in 2011, he spent 10 years in the infrastructure finance field with direct involvement in more than USD6bn of transactions. He holds a PhD in Finance (King’s College London) and degrees from the London School of Economics, the Sorbonne, and Sciences Po Paris. He is a regular contributor to the G20 working group on long-term infrastructure investment, has advised the European Occupational Pensions and Insurance Authority on the prudential treatment of infrastructure investments and also represents EDHEC on the Advisory Board of the Global Infrastructure Facility of the World Bank. Frederic is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Alternative Investments and is a regular contributor to the press. He also chairs the management committee of TICCS®, The Infrastructure Company Classification Standard.

Andreas Cremer is head of department at DEG and responsible for infrastructure and energy operations in Asia, Europe and Middle East, managing a loan portfolio of over US$ 500 million. He has been active in financing for almost 15 years, working as financial advisor and project manager in both corporate finance and project finance transactions. Since joining DEG in 2012, Andreas has been involved in various energy and infrastructure projects with a focus on structuring equity and mezzanine transactions. Prior to his time at DEG, Andreas worked for Houlihan Lokey and KPMG where he held various positions within the advisory divisions. Andreas holds a Master of Business Administration from West Texas A&M University, USA.

Eduard Fernández is a reporter with Infrastructure Investor based in Hong Kong. Previously, he worked as the correspondent in China for several Spanish media outlets, and as news editor for China´s public television network, CCTV. Some of his articles have been published in The Guardian, the South China Morning Post, The Straits Times or El País. Eduard holds a Master´s Degree in Journalism from the University of Hong Kong, and a double Bachelor´s Degree in Journalism and East Asian Studies from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

As a senior structured finance banker with more than 25 years of experience in project finance Cornelie has extensive experience in arranging and structuring complex lending facilities, credit risk assessment, credit restructuring, financial advisory in challenging global markets with a broad focus on infrastructure, food & agri and natural resources in developing and developed markets. She is an experienced and seasoned people manager with strong track record in leading global teams including Continental Europe, Asia, Latin America, USA and Russia. Cornelie holds a MSc in International Economic Relations from the University of Amsterdam.

Before joining HSBC in January 2016, Stewart worked in the public sector for over 20 years. He held a number of posts for HM Treasury (HMT), including six years in Brussels focussing on EU financial regulation. Returning to London he led European Strategy in HMT, working on the renegotiation of the Lisbon Treaty, and the UK’s 2005 Presidency of the EU; and subsequently establishing a Financial Services Strategy Team focussed on developments in global finance. In 2008, Stewart was based in Washington DC, representing the UK Government on the board of the World Bank Group as Alternate Executive Director. This was followed by a spell at the Bank of England where he acted as Governor Mark Carney’s Financial Stability Board (FSB) Sherpa, establishing a team to support the Governor in his role as FSB Chair. Stewart transferred to Hong Kong to become Head of Group Public Affairs, Asia Pacific, in February 2018. He leads Group Public Affairs in the region, working with the existing public policy teams in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai.

Andrew has been Lead Arranging and advising on infrastructure finance for 20+ years. This was initially in the developed markets of Australia (Westpac) then the UK (Mizuho and UBS) as concepts such as IPPs, resource based lending and PPP were first developed. Based in Hong Kong since 1998, he was Head of Global Structured Finance, Asia Pacific for WestLB when it was a top five Lead Arranger of project finance globally. In 2003, he set up in business as Logie Group to advise across the whole investment cycle, namely governments on policy; investors on strategy; fund raising for individual projects and M & A; and as an expert witness in disputes. He is published in the specialist and general press; speaks at conferences; and issues opinion pieces on his website, all on a regular basis.

Jae Hyung Kwon is MIGA’s Head of North Asia. In this role, Jae Hyung is responsible for developing MIGA’s political risk insurance and credit enhancement business in Korea, China, Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand, India, Nepal and Pakistan. Prior to this role, Jae Hyung worked as an underwriter in the Infrastructure Team at MIGA, based in Washington DC, focusing on the water and transportation sectors. Prior to joining MIGA, Jae Hyung was based in Singapore and Seoul working in the field of project and export finance at Standard Chartered Bank, providing financing solutions for infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia and Korea.

Paul Nash brings 27 years infrastructure financing experience covering strategic and financial advisory, lending, capital markets and private equity.

During his career Paul has advised on 15 transactions, acted as lead arranger or lender for over 100 infrastructure loans, comprising in excess of €30 billion and directly made or overseen the investment of €1.6 billion of equity into c.a. 80 transactions. In addition Paul has served on the board of 63 investment companies.

Paul joined DIF in 2008 to establish its operations in the UK which he headed up until 2018. He was also global Head of Infrastructure from 2010 until 2018 when he took on the role of developing DIF’s debt offering and became Head of Infrastructure Debt.

Prior to DIF, he was a Director at XL Capital Assurance where he was responsible for writing AAA-rated financial guarantees for infrastructure bonds across Europe. In his earlier career, Paul spent ten years originating and structuring senior debt for infrastructure and project finance transactions at Rabobank International and he was later Deputy Head of Structured Finance at Landesbank Hessen Thüringen (Helaba), both in London.

He has a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Loughborough University, UK and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Imperial College, University of London, UK.

DIF Capital Partners

DIF Capital Partners is an independent private markets fund manager, controlling €9.0 billion of investments. DIF follows a unique set of private markets strategies in infrastructure equity and the credit space, with a focus on developing highly diversified portfolios across a broad spectrum of projects in Europe, the Americas and Australasia.

Infrastructure Equity Funds
 DIF Infrastructure funds target equity investments with long-term contracted or regulated income streams including public-private partnerships, concessions, utilities, and (renewable) energy projects.
 DIF CIF funds target equity investments in small to mid-sized economic infrastructure assets in the telecom, energy and transportation sectors.

Credit Funds
 DIF’s two Infrastructure Debt strategies target respectively investment grade and not investment grade loans, spanning a wide range of infrastructure sub-sectors mostly in Europe.
 DIF’s Private Debt Fund targets non-investment grade, senior-ranking acquisition financing loans across a range of sectors primarily in the Benelux.

DIF has a team of over 160 professionals, located in nine offices worldwide (Amsterdam/Schiphol), Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Paris, Santiago, Sydney and Toronto). Please visit www.dif.eu for further information.

Kevin Smithen is Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer at Digital Colon and Colony Capital, Inc. (NYSE: CLNY). Mr. Smithen has over 25 years of experience in the global communications services and digital infrastructure sectors and plays a leading role in the firm’s deal sourcing, fundraising and co-investment efforts. Mr. Smithen is also responsible for managing relationships with certain strategic customers worldwide.
Mr. Smithen is also Managing Director, Strategy and Capital Formation at Digital Colony, where he has been instrumental in securing equity and co-investment capital and sourcing proprietary, off-market fiber and data center deals across Canada and Latin America since 2018.
Prior to Digital Colony, Mr. Smithen worked in the equity research division of Macquarie Securities (USA) Inc., most recently as Managing Director, Telecom Services and Infrastructure and as Sector Head for Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT). He has been recognized by StarMine, Bloomberg, and Institutional Investor as a leading analyst and thought leader.
Previously, he worked as a senior analyst and Portfolio Manager for the Lazard Global Opportunities Fund and the Lazard TMT Advantage Fund. He was also the first investment analyst at Coatue Capital, a leading TMT sector hedge fund. Mr. Smithen began his career as an investment banker at Smith Barney, Inc. (Citigroup) in their Media and Telecommunications Group. Mr. Smithen earned a Bachelor of Arts in History, Middle East, and European Policy, magna cum laude, with Distinction from Duke University.

James has 36 years’ experience in financial markets, both public and private. He joined Federated Hermes Infrastructure just over a year ago as a Partner responsible for investor relations and capital raising. He is a member of the Infrastructure Investment Committee. James joined from Campbell Lutyens where he led their infrastructure practice for 8 years before becoming Vice Chairman. Previously, he spent 23 years as a financing banker with Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and SGWarburg. James also spent 3 years at HMTreasury with responsibility for the financing strategy of the major infrastructure projects in the UK. In addition, he was for 6 years a member of the expert panel of advisers to the UK Regulators Network, the internal network of the economic regulators in the UK. He is also a non-executive director of the Hyde Group, a major provider of affordable housing in the south of England and a member of the Global Advisory Board of Campbell Lutyens. James has a BA in Economics from Durham University.