Societe Generale corporate and investment banking has appointed Fabien Simon as co-head of acquisition and leveraged finance for Asia-Pacific.
SG described the region in a written statement as “one of the focal points of corporate acquisition finance, largely driven by cross-border mergers and acquisitions activities, especially in the energy and natural resources sector”.
Simon will lead a team that offers strategic advice on capital structure and financing solutions to both corporates and financial sponsors across the region. He will focus on providing one-stop-shop solutions — encompassing capital advisory, financing and risk management — by collaborating with other business lines within the bank. Simon will be based in Hong Kong.
Simon was previously a managing director in the strategic and acquisition finance team of SG in Paris, with responsibility for a portfolio of French, German and Italian corporate clients. Since 2006, he has worked on some large acquisition financings in Europe across sectors such as utilities, healthcare, construction and capital goods.
Simon will co-head acquisition and leveraged finance with Marc Frenkenberg, who has been part of SG’s acquisition and leveraged finance team in Asia-Pacific since it was formed in 2006. He was instrumental in sourcing the acquisition financing for SG’s corporate and private equity clients in the region. Frenkenberg brought a background in SG’s European leveraged finance team to the Asia-Pacific business, as well as experience in SG’s securitisation team both in the US and in Australia.
SG told FinanceAsia in an interview earlier this year that it has provided support to a number of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) looking to finance cross-border acquisitions, including CNOOC and Sinopec. Some sources have said that financing for SOEs making acquisitions is set to increase with the government directing such companies to raise market-based financing.
SG has also raised leverage finance for a number of Australia deals. Last year it acted as a mandated lead arranger and bookrunner for the debt financing facility for TPG’s A$1.55 billion ($1.64 billion) leveraged buyout of Healthscope. The deal was the largest LBO in Asia-Pacific since 2006. It also acted as an MLA and bookrunner for the financing package for TPG Telecom to acquire Pipe Networks.
