Big-game hunters take aim at the Asian tigers – incomplete

We've called them the big-game hunters - the men who track down the juiciest debt deals and clinch them. How do they do it in the burgeoning Asian market? Sure, they need to know what their banks can deliver and what their clients need. And they must be able to convince borrowers that transactions will fly in the market. Beyond that there's a whole slew of intangibles that can be summed up as establishing relationships. Having friends in high places helps, but you may have to do more than play golf with them - chess, pinball and even the odd bout of karaoke can be required. It also pays to be able to talk about anything, from Japanese ethnohistory to Korean youth soccer. Steven Irvine spoke to some of Asia's finest exponents of talking on their feet.

Lim Ho Kee, Chairman, UBS East Asia

Lim Ho Kee is UBS’s biggest rainmaker in Asia. The chairman of the bank’s east Asian operations has strong relationships with many of the region’s most important overseas Chinese, particularly in Malaysia, Singapore (where he is based) and Indonesia.

Lim regularly plays golf with Indonesian tycoon Anthony Salim, for example. Salim – the son of Liem Sioe Liong – runs the Salim group, which accounts for about 5% of Indonesia’s GDP.

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