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Deloitte has hired Rothschild’s former head of debt advisory and restructuring for Asia, Robert Schmitz, and two members of his team — Richmond Ang and NK Naginlal Modi — as it makes a push into debt restructuring and advisory in the region. The auditing firm has an existing debt restructuring practice, but debt advisory is a relatively new area of focus for the firm both globally and in Southeast Asia.
Schmitz, Ang and Modi were core members of Rothschild’s debt restructuring business. The trio left Rothschild on Friday and started work at Deloitte on Monday. They are all based in Singapore. The trio left Rothschild amid what was described as a “downsizing” in its debt restructuring business in Singapore. A source close to Rothschild said it is committed to its debt advisory business as reflected by recent hires, but that the debt restructuring market has been quiet in contrast to demand for advice in respect of new debt raisings and refinancings.
At Deloitte, Schmitz has joined as a managing director and takes on the leading role in growing the debt advisory and restructuring practice for Southeast Asia. He has more than 32 years experience working on a wide range of corporate finance, credit and capital markets transactions. He has specialised in debt restructuring since 1990 and has worked at UBS, Dresdner Kleinwort, Macquarie and Rothschild in the past.
Richmond has also joined Deloitte as a managing director. He has more than 17 years of banking experience in corporate and structured finance advisory, and in managing and working out distressed credits. Prior to joining Rothschild, Richmond spent eight years with Deutsche Bank as a member of its regional corporate and project finance teams.
Modi has joined as an associate director. He has more than seven years of experience in corporate finance advisory, debt advisory and capital restructuring. He played a key role in the capital restructuring and aircraft financing for Garuda Indonesia as well as the $350 million debt raising for the Semen Gresik group.
The team has recently advised on restructurings for Garuda Indonesia and Arpeni Pratama Ocean Line. Deloitte’s practice in Southeast Asia focuses on restructuring complex capital arrangements and raising funds for large and medium-sized enterprises. The auditing firm’s past transactions have involved exchange offers, debt buybacks, distress funding and “white knight” buy-ins.
Rothschild earlier this week announced it has hired Peter Wheeler to co-head its Southeast Asian operations and as executive vice-chairman of the group. Wheeler had worked at Goldman Sachs for 16 years and previously headed its investment banking business for Asia ex-Japan. Most recently, he was group head of wholesale banking for Africa, Middle East, Europe and the Americas at Standard Chartered.
Wheeler, who is based in Singapore, jointly manages Rothschild’s global financial advisory business in Southeast Asia alongside Piers Willis, co-head of Southeast Asia and executive vice-chairman of the group. Wheeler also oversees the group’s wealth management and trust business in the region. Rothschild also recently appointed Raymond Rudianto as a director in its Jakarta office.
