ADM Capital: What happened last year?

Asia Debt Management, one of the oldest Asian distressed debt funds, seems to have had a rather bad year last year. From what I can tell, the fund missed its 15% hurdle, and had a few senior people leave.  It seems like the top dogs stayed on, but the thirty somethings, the core of the fund business, seem to have evaporated.

Justin Ferrier ends up in Myo capital, Mary Schroeder joins Och Ziff. That leaves you with the just the 4 principals of the fund. I’m not sure which deals blew up on them, but they did some darn innovative work along the way, one of the first Indian restructurings led by a foreign party, and all sizes of stuff all over South East Asia.

Mary Schroeder

Mary Schroeder is a corporate recovery consultant with substantial experience implementing debt restructuring plans and performing forensic accounting of financially distressed companies in the U.S. and in Hong Kong. Prior to joining ADM, Mary worked for KPMG’s Corporate Turnaround Department for five years, where she was involved in the refinancing of a PRC oil refinery, liquidation of an U.S. auto parts manufacturer, and the asset sales program of a Hong Kong construction company. Prior to joining this group, she worked in KPMG’s Assurance Services Department as an auditor. Mary is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where she obtained double degrees in Business Administration and Chinese Studies.

Mr Christopher Botsford,

Co-founder and CEO, ADM Capital

Christopher Botsford is a co-founder of ADM Capital, CEO of ADM Capital and a member of ADM Capital’s Investment Committee. Before establishing ADM Capital, Chris ran the Asia-Pacific regional debt and derivatives operation for Republic National Bank of New York. In 1995, he was a founding board member of the Asian arm of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, the self-governing body for the derivatives industry. Chris holds an MA and BA from Cambridge University.

Hong Kong-based hedge fund firm Myo Capital is gearing up to launch an Asian-focused fund that will focus on undervalued credit strategies.

The Myo Capital Master Fund is set to debut on April 1 with $50 million in assets under management, according to Asian Investor.  The new Asian-focused (ex-Japan) vehicle will have four sub-strategies including high-yield credit, distressed, special situations and event driven.

The new fund is being headed up by Justin Ferrier, a former director at hedge fund shop ADM Capital.

“For example, if we are looking at a distressed credit, our Thai or Indonesian analyst will provide local intelligence, while Alfred, our trader, provides the market pricing and can source the credit from a large number of participants,” Ferrier told Asian Investor.

Other principals in the fund include Geoff Lee, who previously worked with Ferrier at Peregrine Capital and will run the special situations portfolio for the new fund; and Alfred Miu, formerly with UBS’s global credit strategies group, who will run the high-yield portion of the fund. In all, there will be 12 members of the team.

The fund is targeting returns of 13-15% net, with a volatility of 7% and a Sharpe ratio of 1.5-2. To start, it will not use leverage, but add use up to 150% as time goes on. The fund has a target close of $500 million.

Merrill Lynch will serve as prime broker for the new Myo fund; Maples and Calder and Simmons & Simmons will serve as lawyers; and HSBC will be the administrator.