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Barry Lau Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva:

Barry Lau, a former lawyer at Clifford Chance London turned banker turned hedge fund manager, co-founded Adamas Asset Management (originally called Gen2 Partners), after noticing that after every financial crisis, banks tend to stop lending, especially to private SMEs. The latter typically grow at the fastest pace and require the most expansion capital.

"What we decided therefore is it would be an interesting business model to finance such growing companies in greater China," he told Matthias Knab during a recent Opalesque TV interview. "There are about 50 million private companies in China and according to our most industry-known surveys, only up to 10% of such companies are in receipt of bank financing. Therefore, about 90% of the 50 million companies do not receive any bank financing."

But those companies contribute 65% of Chinese GDP and create 80% of all employment. To him, the opportunity was very clear.

Identifying the good companies among 50 million takes a lot of work and that is where Adamas A.M. comes in; the managers there built up their expertise and their network in the space, a lot of it driven by proprietary sourcing capability.

Wi......................

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