Our Story – AWR Lloyd

Our Story

AWR Lloyd was conceived and established at the turn of the millennium, on 4th February 2000, the first day of the ‘Year of the Golden Dragon’. Our mission, for over two decades now, has been to act as a catalyst for economic development, sustainability and greater security in the Indo-Pacific region, through supporting our clients in the design, development, execution and communication of innovative and value-creating strategies.

The firm was launched from the very beginning in a spirit of enterprise and adventure. The three founding partners had been working together at Paribas, an investment bank in Paris, in the 1990s and were frustrated with big company politics, bureaucracy and inertia. The founders decided to break-free and establish their own advisory firm with an emphasis on accountability, agility and innovation. During the course of 1999, as Paribas waited to be engulfed by the even bigger and more conservative commercial banking culture of BNP, the founders made their plans and then one-by-one jumped ship.

Initially launched as ‘AWR’ in Paris, the firm’s first assignment in 2000 was working with the World Bank and Paribas to privatize the Romanian aluminium industry, an M&A transaction which was successfully completed. Two of the founders, Alex Wood and Jeremy Ayre quickly decided, however, to focus the firm on the resources, energy and infrastructure sectors of the ‘Eastern Hemisphere’ and by 2002 the firm had been re-established in its current form in Hong Kong. George Lloyd joined as Chairman in 2003 and the firm was renamed ‘AWR Lloyd’. In 2006, the firm merged with Asia Energy Resources, a power and gas sector industry research boutique led by Franck Constant.

Alex Wood had moved to Bangkok in 2001 to develop the firm’s Asia business including supporting the expansion of Banpu, a Thai-listed energy group, into Indonesia and helping them develop a best practice investor relations programme. Jeremy Ayre moved to Sydney to develop the firm’s Australia business with George Lloyd, including work which led to the formation of Felix Resources, a mining company ultimately acquired by Yanzhou, the Chinese coal giant. Other early work included advising companies in the vanadium battery, renewable energy, fuel cells, oil tank terminals, mining and power sectors in Southeast Asia.

By mid-decade the firm had completed a $450M M&A deal in Australia, was supporting Banpu’s growth across the region – and was executing its first consulting assignments in Vietnam. Between 2006 and 2010 AWR Lloyd expanded the geographic and sectoral scope of its business substantially, for example with an active Korea business (and Seoul office) and several real estate clients including Raimon Land in Thailand, who, with its primary shareholder, IFA Hotels & Resorts in the Middle East, remained a client for over 6 years. During this period, the firm also acted as advisor to a number of larger transactions including the IPO of PetroVietnam Finance Corp on the Ho Chi Minh City stock exchange, the $2.3 billion IPO of ITMG on the Indonesia stock exchange, a $420M M&A deal in China – and a private placement for a listed real estate group. Pitipong Matitanaviroon, joined the firm during this phase of the firm’s development and was eventually appointed as Managing Director – Corporate Finance.

Alex Wood became CEO of AWR Lloyd in 2010. During the period 2010-16, the firm originated and completed a number of big-ticket corporate finance and strategy consulting assignments including for Banpu (coal, power), ThaiOil (oil refining, petchem, power, bio-fuels), SPRC-Chevron (oil refining), Bangchak (oil refining, marketing, bio-fuels, solar) and the Thai Ministry of Science & Technology (satellites). AWR Lloyd also did some of its first consulting work in Myanmar (four infrastructure assignments). During this phase, Tuong Thi Thu Hanh joined AWR Lloyd as Managing Director – Greater Mekong Region and head of the firm’s Ho Chi Minh City office. Nadda Trisrisupa also joined and was eventually appointed as Managing Director for Corporate Development.

In 2017, AWR Lloyd was restructured, with some former directors becoming non-executives or leaving the firm to pursue other ventures. A number of new partners joined in their place: Rajat Kapoor (MD – Oil & Gas), Rustom Modi (MD – Technology & Infrastructure) and Bart Lucarelli (MD – Project Advisory). More recently the firm has been joined by former CFO of Rio Tinto in Indonesia, Herwan Ng (MD – Indonesia), Brad Denig (MD – Innovation & Sustainability), Aris Stamoulis (MD – Corporate Finance, Special Projects) and Charaka Sumanasekara (MD – SA-MEA).

Over the past two years, AWR Lloyd’s business has evolved in exciting new directions. A few highlights:

  • Closure of two landmark M&A deals in Vietnam: one financial institution and one pharmaceuticals company, both sold to Korean groups.
  • An engagement with the SK group (Korea’s third largest conglomerate) to develop a $1.5 billion underground rock cavern storage project in Oman to mitigate the energy security risks of a crisis in the Strait of Hormuz.
  • An assignment to promote the Port of Duqm Co (JV in Oman between the Port of Antwerp and the Omani Government) industrial estate and port facilities to Indian and Southeast Asian companies.
  • The firm’s first major ‘disruptive innovation’ strategy assignment including a business plan and launch of an innovation lab and corporate venture capital (CVC) programme for a major Asian client.
  • The firm’s first smart city assignment focused on energy supply to Asia’s largest smart city project, One Bangkok.
  • A series of assignments for the UN Technology Innovation Lab relating to smart cities (Sharjah, UAE), circular economy and financial inclusion (Thailand) and information technology (India, Afghanistan).
  • In-depth corporate finance advisory and investment evaluation – on a wide range of different targets and sectors in Indonesia – and investor relations support to ITMG in Indonesia.
  • Three intelligence-gathering and in-depth economic value chain analysis assignments for the world’s largest oil and gas group, focused on the Indian midstream and downstream oil and petrochemicals sectors, preparing the way for two multi-billion dollar investments.
  • Three coal-procurement advisory assignments relating to large thermal IPP power projects in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Philippines, Laos), including a major engagement with EGAT-International.
  • Energy transition strategy consulting to Banpu with a focus on transitioning the group to a ‘Greener Smarter’ future by growing their interests in lower carbon and clean tech businesses (gas, renewables, e-mobility, ESS, smart infra…).
  • Best practice investor relations and ESG reporting support to Banpu and Banpu Power.
  • Strategy consulting and communications advisory support to Banpu, a consulting relationship which is now in its twentieth year.
  • Design and management of management workshops for an Asian energy client to analyze the long term direction of new energy technologies and regulation – and to develop a 10-year plan which leverages the mega-trends of decarbonization, digitalization and decentralization, including ‘deep dive’ research into remote and off-grid power in the Middle East and Asia, Task-Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) strategy, carbon offset strategy, hydrogen and ‘tech minerals’ strategies.

Today, AWR Lloyd is also a leading member or sponsor of:

  • PFAN: the ‘Private Financing Advisory Network’, hosted by UNIDO and REEEP: a global network of climate and clean energy financing experts).
  • AVPN: the ‘Asian Venture Philanthropy Network’. AVPN promotes venture capital with a focus on sustainability and humanitarian objectives – and social enterprise.
  • The South Asia Technical Assistance Hub: part of the Gates Foundation in Bangladesh, in partnership with Devcon.
  • The Thammasat Economics Association in Thailand: including support for their annual thought-leadership conference on Thailand’s place in the global economy.

AWR Lloyd is also proud to be a strategic partner of Bahana Securities in Indonesia.

In 2017 the firm also established a Senior Advisory Board including George Lloyd in Sydney (also Chairman of Ausenco, a global engineering consulting group), Shiraz Poonevala (Director – Investment, GP Group) in Bangkok, Raj Kohli (former MD for Mining & Metals at HSBC and Standard Bank) in London – and Max Jarrett (Africa Programme Manager for the International Energy Agency, and former aide to Kofi Annan, ex-UN Secretary) in Paris.

AWR Lloyd is currently represented in the UK, India, Australia, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Oman with principal offices in Mumbai, Bangkok, Jakarta, South Korea, and Ho Chi Minh City.