BDA Partners – the new name for Business Development Asia LLC

January 20, 2015

Business Development Asia LLC (“BDA”) today announced that the company will, going forward, be known as BDA Partners. BDA Partners is the leading independent, pan-Asian investment banking firm.

BDA Partners will continue to be led by the same management team who set up the firm in 1996. The evolution of the name is intended to reflect better the management structure of the firm, and particularly that the core ownership and leadership comprise a long-standing, collegial core of professionals. BDA is focused on executing cross-border M&A transactions for sophisticated private equity funds and corporations. BDA will continue to work closely with global investment bank William Blair, its partner and minority shareholder.

Euan Rellie, co-founder and Senior Managing Director said, “We’ve been in business for 18 years, and our clients and colleagues typically refer to us as ‘BDA’. We’ve enjoyed outstanding management stability: the senior team has an average tenure of more than 10 years with the firm. We’ve achieved  significant growth in recent years, and are excited about the next stage of growth as BDA Partners.”

Charles Maynard, co-founder and Senior Managing Director commented, “BDA will continue to focus on cross-border M&A involving Asia. We’re grateful to our clients, who continue to re-hire us on increasingly ambitious, bigger and strategically important transactions. We’re resolutely committed to providing excellent, focused, impactful advice.”

Andrew Huntley, Senior Managing Director added, “BDA has emerged as a leader. We’ve carefully built and trained a pre-eminent team, from the Managing Directors down to our junior and admin staff. We’ve also established a unique global footprint of offices. We believe that the macro-economic environment, and the increasing importance of Asia, will help us do more for our clients, and in turn to increase the fees and profitability we generate.”

BDA recorded record revenues in 2014 and is well-placed, with a strong book of business, for further growth in 2015. BDA advised on 18 transactions which were announced and/or closed in 2014, mostly representing sellers of businesses. Notable transactions included:

• Sale of Trio (China) for Navis Capital (Malaysia) to Weir Group (UK), the largest PE trade sale exit in China in 2014
• Sale of a majority stake in Savera (China) to Partners Group (Switzerland), the second largest buy-in by a PE firm of a control stake in China in 2014
• Sale of a significant stake in An Giang Plant Protection (Vietnam) to Standard Chartered Private Equity (Singapore), the largest PE exit in Vietnam in 2014
• Sale of AgFeed (US operations) to Tri Oak Foods and Smithfield/Murphy Brown (US); sale of AgFeed (China operations) to Ningbo Tech Bank (China)
• Sale of CoActive Technologies’ DeltaTech Controls (US) to Sensata Technologies (Netherlands/US)
• Acquisition of a controlling stake in Systran (France) by CSLi (Korea), the first public takeover in France by a Korean acquirer

About BDA

BDA Partners (“BDA”) is a leader in cross-border investment banking. BDA advises on M&A, capital raising, and restructuring.  BDA has been consistently owned and managed by the same team since 1996. BDA has a track record of providing independent advice to blue-chip corporate and financial sponsor clients from North America, Europe and Asia. BDA is headquartered in New York with offices in London, Bahrain, Mumbai, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo. BDA was named M&A Advisory Firm of the Year at The ACG Champions Awards in 2014. BDA formed a partnership with William Blair & Company in 2011. www.bdapartners.com

For more information, please contact Charles Maynard in Beijing on +86 10 5737 9028, Andrew Huntley in London on +44 20 7182 4518, or Euan Rellie in New York on +1 212 265 5300

BDA carries out its US securities business through BDA Advisors Inc, a broker-dealer registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a member of FINRA and SIPC. BDA’s UK subsidiary is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.