Neleus Lee

Investment Finance & Operations Management

Deal Level Operations:

• Deal structuring for tax, legal & commercial considerations
• Deal flow (end-to-end) transaction planning and execution for acquisition & divestment
• Support all deal activities - e.g. portfolio opco listing, trading, recap, external financing and any distributions etc.
• Cash flow and capitalization planning and management throughout life cycle of deal
• Review of relevant deal documents from Finance & Operations perspective
• Oversee and manage all financial, tax and any regulatory reporting requirements for Cayman and Singapore GP + LP vehicles and SPVs with 3rd party administrators
• Manage stakeholders - deal team, legal, tax advisors and Treasury team in entire process chain
• Ensure relevant checklists, protocols and memos are being completed in the process chain
• Board member of investment SPVs

Fund Level Operations:

• Manage existing funds (conventional & Shariah), portfolios (deal by deals) and set up new fund (GP/LP) structures
• Create and coordinate PPM documents for fundraising
• Support all investors reporting relating to Asia products
• Strategic formulating of JV (co-GP) and fund business with 3rd party HK investor and management of the JV operations in HK
• Support ongoing carry analysis and waterfall distributions and any funds wind-up
• Support all DDQs and processes for creating SMAs for prospective investors
• Board member of Asia Funds & JV

Corporate Management

• Management of financial, tax and regulatory reporting as well as its operations for Singapore office and Beijing office (and to limited extent for Japan office)
• Support Asia Heads of Business for their business management reporting and budgeting (Asia products' P&L)
• Primary contact and support point to MAS regulatory matters
• Ongoing work with corporate headquarters in process streamlining and digitization of investment operations & administration workflows
• Board member of all Singapore corporate subsidiaries and newly acquired Japan subsidiary

Investment Operations & Fund Management – Private Equity & Tactical Opportunities Funds (Pan-Asia Deals)

• Managed deal structuring, entities set-up, closing costs, funding flows, deal closing execution process, capitalizations and all necessary support in both deal acquisitions and exits, in collaboration with deal team, tax and legal professionals (both internal & external)
• Reviewed asset distributions, cash flow projections for deal structure/fund vehicles and capital calls
• Debt covenant reporting in collaboration with deal team and portfolio companies’ finance teams
• Managed 3rd party administrators and tax agents for all accounting, tax and other fund compliance matters, including all 13R/X tax incentive matters for over 70 Singapore & Cayman fund entities
• Maintained oversight of investment platform and deal/fund structures for management fee flows & operational matters
• Created effective reporting board packs for each deal and SPV
• Managed administrative processes such as KYC, structure requirements for certain jurisdictions like India (FPI, FVCI, demat custody accounts etc.)
• Supported heavily in investees' tax jurisdictions queries (India, Australia) and Singapore substance validation
• Use of Tableau to create some of the deal performance dashboards reporting for senior management
• Successfully worked on US$500mm bond offering in SGX for investment SPV, and negotiated with MAS for S$400K Asian bond grant to defray listing costs in Singapore
• Board member of investment fund SPVs and key authorized signatories to all SPV operations

Corporate Financial Controllership & Management Reporting – Singapore Fund Manager & Investment Platform

• Managed all financial closing, reporting, audit, tax and MAS reporting as corporate controller
• Managed both onshore and offshore teams based in Singapore/APAC and India respectively
• Actively drove transformation changes post Finance restructuring: alignment of processes across businesses, automation and streamlining of processes using new technology solutions to achieve greater efficiencies and time savings (refer to Others / Technology Use)
• Implemented new financial, tax & operational processes across Singapore platform
• Successfully negotiated the FSI-FM tax incentive renewal with MAS and FTC incentive with EDB including preparing various analyses and presentations for MAS and internal senior management
• Prepared various scenario planning analyses and management reporting for fund management platform
• Managed all investment platform matters with regards to fee model and Singapore Investment Committee
• Prepared and presented multiple investment platform analyses to top senior management in BX NY headquarters, including corporate tax savings to BX unitholders and investment tax savings to fund LPs
• Participated actively in developing the shared service centre team in Gurgaon, India which has become an integral part of our team and process chain in BX
• Alternate secretary to the Singapore Investment Committee and key authorized signatory to all bank accounts

Other Activities at Blackstone

• Managed administration of The Stephen A. Schwarzman Scholars Trust in Singapore - financial, compliance and IPC renewal requirements, investment of donation funds etc.
• Supported other BX special analytical projects for BX HK and RMB fund administration
• Appointed as global BX Finance Training & Integration Committee representative for APAC – Lead and organize events for APAC Finance
• Active member of the BX Women’s Initiatives Network (“WIN”) committee, organizing various events for SG women staff

Portfolio Finance & Asset Management – Real Estate

• Deal structuring, deal closing process like managing closing costs, funding flows and all necessary processes for deal acquisition / exits
• Actively monitored and managed asset performance and cash flows in collaboration with 3rd party asset managers on monthly basis, including actively monitoring tenancy markets with brokers for office assets
• Reviewed monthly performance and waterfall distribution reports from assets with 3rd party asset managers, analyzing the Opex and Capex budgets requirements
• Led operational audits on hotel assets to evaluate business operational controls and risks
• Performed deal performance analytics and commentaries for monthly and ad hoc reporting
• Reviewed quarterly valuation of portfolio
• Managed the accounting, audit, tax compliance and corporate governance for investment fund entities across US LLCs, Mauritius SPVs and Singapore corporates

Regulatory Compliance (Set-up the compliance process in absence of local compliance officer)

• Undertook the entire compliance set-up including researching, application of CMS license, implementation of full suite of compliance processes in Singapore office

Capital Markets - Global Public Markets (Emerging Markets)

• Key lead in all trade execution and settlement operations in global public market equities
• Prepared all management and operational reporting for all daily trades, cash movement, entire portfolio details, performance charts, liquidity positions /risks, market charts, fundamentals etc
• Managed all financial and tax reporting for all investment fund entities across Singapore, Cayman and Mauritius
• Analyzed various markets tax & regulatory requirements for evaluation of investments in new markets
• Ensured 13R/X tax exemption scheme compliance and prepared annual declarations to MAS and IRAS
• Managed all investment closing documents, meetings & corporate administrative matters
• Conceptualized and prepared presentation to MAS as a strategic initiative to expand RCC’s investment platform for further tax exemptions
• Assumed interim leadership for middle /back office team (in the long absence of a middle/back-office head)
• Direct report to CFO and Chairman

(Temp cover role for 6 months)

• Main client: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (“KKR”) – New York, New York
• Co-lead senior in core team (full-time client service for 2 years)
• For IPO transaction - Performed full range of audit / review procedures for its SEC filings including its consolidation and KKR's valuation model for IPO
• For regular audit - Full range of audit/review on portfolio valuation, partnership accounting, allocation, capital calls / distribution process and internal controls
• Awarded and commended for consistent top performance at KKR IPO engagement by both Deloitte and KKR management
• Other clients: GMC (former SEC listed oil-shipping firm), SGS N.A. Inc (independent certification), Coty Inc (FMCG), Atlas Investments (hedge funds) – New York / New Jersey
• Performed full range of 10K/Qs reporting and audit procedures including SOX controls, senior notes offering and merger accounting (where applicable)
• Managed teams across engagements

• Key clients: Dow Chemical Asia-Pac group, EDB Investments, CPG Corporation)
• Main responsibilities: Performed full range of audit procedures including valuation and internal controls in SFRS and inter-firm reporting in US GAAP
• Managed teams across engagements