Patriarch specialises in corporate restructuring and aggregating non-performing debt, using techniques Ms Tilton developed after years of working in firms such as Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. She believes her methods are the perfect medicine for ailing Chinese industries.

Ms Tilton's new venture focuses on troubled Chinese companies in the industrial heartland, offering advice and investing in those with a chance to become global players. On her first morning in Beijing, she dived in quickly, meeting the deputy head of the China Banking Regulatory Commission and, later, officials from the country's four asset management companies and top banking executives.

Patriarch's interest in China emerged six months ago after a chance meeting between Ms Tilton and Fredy Bush, who founded the Xinhua Financial Network (XFN), a news and financial service firm based in China. They met after Ms Bush phoned to inquire about buying a financial service company owned by Ms Tilton, one of dozens that Patriarch controls.

'I had no interest in selling,' Ms Tilton said. 'But we began to speak about non-performing loans in China. Of all the countries that I've looked at, I never felt the financial model I built was more suited than to China.'

Ms Tilton is an expert in the relatively arcane art of restructuring debt-laden companies. She is also an expert in securitisation, whereby low-grade loans are pooled together, closely analysed, then sold to investors as a package - usually with a rating from the credit agencies that makes it more valuable. The hope is that the risks in each loan are mitigated through analysis and careful grouping with other loans.

Her financial model is unique in that she managed to coax the United States government to give her a patent for it, a rare event in the finance sector, where new techniques are quickly borrowed (or stolen) by competitors.

Unlike some turnaround specialists, who are looking to strip assets and make a quick buck, Ms Tilton said she took a 'bottom up' approach. This means she becomes closely involved with the management of the companies who borrow the money and assists in their restructuring. She sits on the board of more than 30 companies and keeps watch on a total of 500.

Many of these are the neglected poor of the industrial world, including wallflowers such as textile plants and pay-phone operators. 'We've been the champions of sunset industries in the US,' she said. 'We own middle-market companies that are out of mode in the US.'

These are usually good companies that may have expanded too quickly or added too much debt but have sound business plans. With some fine-tuning in management, and balance sheet wizardry, she figures she can turn them around. 'Usually it's a problem with capital structure. There's way too much debt. There are also expense issues and too many employees,' she said.

While China is a much more challenging market to enter, she believes it is ripe pickings for someone who sees the hidden value in down-and-out industrial companies. And after seeing the 'hollowing out' of her firms that have shifted manufacturing to China, she has noted the important role China will play in the future.

She acknowledges she is a neophyte in China and could not find her way to Tiananmen Square. That is why she is searching for Chinese partners. Patriarch and XFN have created a partnership but will be searching for others to join the venture.

'I don't think we will go it alone. We will work with the AMCs or other entities that have done restructuring. We will joint venture with someone else in China who has the same passion,' Ms Tilton said.

'Xinhua Financial and Patriarch will set up offices in China and I will spend a considerable amount of time training people' to do the financial analysis and provide the management advice required by her turnaround strategy, she said.

Ms Tilton disdains the thinking that only large investment banks have a shot at creating viable businesses in China's complex debt-restructuring market. 'They're looking to buy and make a quick dollar. I am looking for a long-term commitment,' she said.