ADM Capital looks to drive positive change for businesses, supporting entrepreneurs and tomorrow’s leading enterprises where traditional finance might be absent. Through careful structuring, alignment and ongoing management, ADM Capital uses its expertise and established networks to help portfolio companies deliver sustainable growth.
We believe the social and environmental aspects of businesses ultimately influence returns. As such, we fully expect that our investments, whilst producing superior returns, should be based on sound ESG principles.
This approach is embodied in the Investment Principles and Business Values that guide our people and processes across every part of our business.
Investment Principles
Service the ‘Funding Gap’
A ‘financing gap’ exists in Asia Pacific where traditional forms of credit or equity are unavailable for small and medium enterprises. This creates opportunities for flexible creditors such as ADM Capital to assess risk and provide capital solutions with commensurate levels of return.
Communication
ADM Capital seeks to forge close partnerships with borrowers, partnerships built on sound advice and honesty. As such we expect frequent and open correspondence, transparency and access to business and financial data. We aim to support our borrowers and help them along the path to more sustainable financing, and in doing so, enhance value for ADM Capital’s investors.
Alignment of Interest
We seek to partner with strong, capable management teams with demonstrated experience and clear business goals. Ensuring incentives are appropriately aligned supports a healthy and mutually beneficial borrower and lender relationship.
Protect the Downside
We aim to limit downside risk. Effective collateralisation is key in delivering attractive risk-adjusted returns to investors. We seek to ensure our controls are strong with diversified, quality collateral assets and governance rights that support the protection of capital in the event of deteriorating asset performance. Taking timely and appropriate remedial action is important in ensuring consistent loan performance and our structuring approach prioritises contractual return and the avoidance of losses, before potential upside gains.
Environmental and Social Value
Although our loans are typically short-term, we require environmental and social progress throughout the life of our loan, and will support borrowers through the process. We monitor ESG-related Key Performance Indicators across our transactions and portfolios, preparing borrowers for anticipated climate driven regulatory developments.
Diversity and Inclusion
We support the evidence that more diverse and inclusive companies tend to outperform their competitors. We also look to deliver diversity of thought at the board and senior management levels of ADM Capital, and to all the companies we support.
ADM Capital believes that an inclusive workplace environment, where a variety of cultures, backgrounds, and ways of thinking are valued and embraced, allows employees to feel comfortable being themselves, which in turn, boosts their engagement, productivity levels and overall happiness.
To achieve this, our objectives are three-fold:
Promoting diversity, equity and inclusion within ADM Capital, the funds we manage and the portfolio companies our funds finance
Adopting a gender lens across our analysis, be it at the due diligence stage, at the portfolio monitoring stage or within our own organisation
Engaging on DEI discussions in an active manner when reaching out to internal and external stakeholders
Business Values
Integrity
ADM Capital prides itself on being a trusted, reliable and accountable lender. Key origination channels include previous borrowers and transaction participants who report successful outcomes. We are a relationship-driven, client focussed investment manager and seek constructive outcomes for all stakeholders.
We insist on a culture of diversity and strong governance, with investment and operational standards frequently reviewed and improved to ensure consistent and superior performance.
Our investors can expect transparent reporting, timely and regular updates, engagement of the highest quality, independent third-party service providers and adherence to leading industry and regulatory standards.
Sustainability
We believe in investing in our future not borrowing from it.
We view Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) integration as part of our fiduciary duty and believe that as a fund manager, we have an important role to play in supporting our portfolio companies’ environmental and social outcomes. This is reflected in our Environmental & Social Management System and our associated policies, which are central to our overall risk management framework.
ESG due diligence and management can mitigate potential environmental and social risks that would otherwise reduce an investee company’s financial viability and may also identify business opportunities that could enhance an investee company’s financial position. Supported by our Sustainability Advisor, ESG Committee, the ADM Capital Foundation, investors and our various partners, we lead by example and are committed to setting private market sustainability standards without compromising performance.
Flexibility
ADM Capital does not have a typical borrower profile and we consider each financing opportunity based on the unique and nuanced situation of the individual borrower. Our team IS creative and flexible in providing solutions. ADM Capital can move quickly and confidentially to assess risk and underwrite loans.
Long-standing regional sourcing networks and an understanding of the evolving economic, political and regulatory environment allows ADM Capital to maintain allocational flexibility, taking advantage of the changeable risk-adjusted returns presented across industries in developed and emerging markets.
Entrepreneurialism
We understand Asia’s entrepreneurial small businesses across economic cycles, and are able to support the pursuit of opportunities in growth environments and resolve financial problems during downturns. Our Founding Partners launched ADM Capital in the uncertainty following the Asian Financial Crisis, and we are one of the most experienced private credit managers in Asia’s emerging markets. We approach our own business with an ambitious, progressive mindset and are committed to maintaining our edge as a diligent, flexible and responsible investor.
Discipline
ADM Capital’s senior investment professionals have in-depth structured credit, risk and portfolio management experience. Our underwriting standards, refined over 23 years of emerging market credit investing, are never compromised and are applied consistently across countries, sectors and lending situations regardless of the dry powder available on our platform.
We control risk – assessing business, market, credit and liquidity risks – to ensure portfolios are diversified and align clearly with our Investment Principles.
