Ernst & Young builds restructuring team

In a sign of the times, if you're a specialist in restructuring, you can find a job. Ernst & Young has appointed David Chew as an executive director in its restructuring group. He is based in Hong Kong and focuses on special situations advisory engagements, which primarily includes bank workouts (creditor side) and advising distressed companies (debtor side).

Chew has more than 12 years experience in restructuring, turnaround and capital markets transactions in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and China. This includes three years of debtor side experience assisting corporations with financial restructuring, capital raising and negotiating.

Chew re-joined Ernst & Young from Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong, where he spent the past year in the principal investment group focusing on opportunities in Asia-Pacific. At Morgan Stanley, he successfully completed the restructuring and recapitalisation of Australian Stock Exchange-listed Living and Leisure Australia (which involved a A$100 million rights issue and refinancing of A$200 million of senior and mezzanine debt facilities) and worked on various high-yield private placements. His main role was fundamental credit analysis relating to primary and secondary trades, financial modelling and valuations, due diligence and execution. For many firms these days, principal investing isn't top of the agenda and Chew previously spent more than five years in Ernst & Young's Singapore restructuring group, so the move back to his former stomping ground makes sense.

"We are excited to welcome David back to the firm as we are seeing a substantial increase in activities from lenders and corporates in regard to dealing with stressed/distressed situations given the current financial climate," says Stephen Liu, a managing director at Ernst & Young.

Chew is a chartered accountant (a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia) and a member of the Insolvency Practitioners Association of Singapore.