Blackstone Advisory Partners Asia Transferred to Comprador

NEW YORK & HONG KONG--(Business Wire / Korea Newswire)--Blackstone (NYSE:BX) today announced that it has transferred its Hong Kong based M&A advisory business to Comprador Limited, an independent advisory firm which will be led by Anthony J. Steains.

Comprador, based in Hong Kong, will build upon the successful business of Blackstone Advisory Partners Asia, primarily advising blue-chip corporates in greater China and Korea on large and complex outbound merger and acquisition transactions. Mr. Steains, a 20 year veteran of Asian M&A, headed Blackstone Advisory Partners Asia and previously held senior roles at Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank and ING Barings.

Stephen A. Schwarzman, Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder of Blackstone commented: “We are delighted that Tony has taken the initiative to transfer the Asia business, which his team has built over the last six years, to establish Comprador. We wish Tony and his talented team every success and Blackstone looks forward to our future cooperation with Comprador.”

Mr. Steains, Chairman and CEO of Comprador said, “The M&A advisory market in Asia has evolved dramatically over the last two decades, with ever more sophisticated clients undertaking increasingly complex deals which demand precisely the sort of thoughtful, conflict-free, experienced advice we provide. Since the global financial crisis, most of the major investment banks have re-restructured their M&A teams, creating an exciting opportunity for specialist firms to offer truly bespoke advisory services.”

Mr. Steains added, “We have worked closely with Blackstone to seamlessly transfer our experienced team to Comprador and to provide our clients with absolute continuity of service. Together, our team has built an excellent track record and we are very excited to be creating a leading and truly independent specialist Asian M&A firm. We are very grateful to Blackstone for enabling us to continue building the business under Comprador and look forward to a close association in the future.”

Notes to Editors:

Before joining Blackstone in 2008 to establish Blackstone Advisory Partners Asia, Mr. Steains was a Managing Director, Head of Industrials coverage and Head of Asia Corporate Finance at Lehman Brothers in Hong Kong. Prior to working at Lehman Brothers, Mr. Steains was Head of Industrials & Resources and formerly Head of Mergers & Acquisitions for Deutsche Bank in Asia and prior to Deutsche Bank, Head of Mergers & Acquisitions in Asia for ING Barings. Mr. Steains qualified as a Chartered Accountant in Australia with Coopers & Lybrand.

Mr. Steains has over 20 years investment banking experience in Asia, especially in mergers and acquisitions and restructuring advisory, where he has managed transactions on behalf of clients including AIA, Chinalco / Chalco, Hynix Semiconductor, PetroChina, Seoul Bank, Shanghai Auto, First Pacific, The Salim Group, Noble Group, Tesco, Procter & Gamble and Philippine Long Distance Telephone.

Mr. Steains graduated from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Business. He holds a Bachelor of Laws (Honors) from the University of London and is an Associate of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants and Securities Institute of Australia.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=51074179&lang=en

Website: http://www.blackstone.com

This is a news release distributed by Korea Newswire on behalf of this company.