Fatfish Group appoints investment banking pioneer to board of subsidiary ASEAN Fintech
According to Fatfish, Fran Au is a renowned former investment banker.
Technology venture capital firm Fatfish Group (ASX: FFG) has appointed Frank Au as a non-executive director of its subsidiary company ASEAN Fintech Group (formerly known as Fatfish Disruptive Ventures).
Mr Au is considered a pioneer in Asia’s investment banking industry, with more than 20 years experience in the technology and business sectors.
He has been instrumental in bringing many initial public offerings (IPO) of Chinese internet unicorns to US capital markets and has acted as an underwriter for IPOs by JD.com, Qunar, Weibo, Qihoo360, DangDang and China.com.
He has also led capital markets and advisory transactions in sectors such as e-commerce, mobile services, online gaming, social media, live streaming, software and telecom equipment.
In 2017, Mr Au acted as an advisor on the majority stake sale of China’s largest dating and matchmaking business Zhenai.com to Asian alternative investment management group PAG.
Career start
Mr Au started his career at Lehman Brothers and worked in the Hong Kong and New York offices where he headed the company’s Greater China Internet investment banking team.
He has held subsequent roles as president of China Renaissance Holdings and is the former chief executive officer of Cowen and Company Asia.
Prior to these, he co-founded boutique Chinese investment bank Latitude Capital, which was later acquired by Cowen.
Mr Au is presently a co-founder and managing partner of private Chinese investment firm PacificPine Group.
He is a board member of PacificPine’s portfolio companies PacificPine Sports, PGA Youth Academy, Five-Star Sports, Zhenai, Nuance Biotech, Westyle and YouYao.
He also sits on the advisory boards of Chinese companies Venturous Group and Homaer Financial.
Investment option
As part of his ASEAN directorship, Mr Au has been granted an option to invest in Fatfish via 1 million options, with a strike price equivalent to the five-day volume weighted average share price from the date of his appointment.
The options will have a vesting period of 12 months and will be valid for three years.
ASEAN Fintech Group will continue to lead Fatfish’s expansion into South East Asia’s fintech market using an aggressive investment strategy.