Wall Street high-flyer says her methods are a perfect fit for ailing mainland firms
Lynn Tilton's unconventional approaches to corporate rescue have won her a prosperous career in New York. Her Wall Street investment company, Patriarch Partners, manages a US$4 billion portfolio and enjoys a reputation for pluck and success.
Business has never been better. So it was with some surprise that she found herself last month on a plane to Beijing, her first trip to China. 'I've never left my business before,' she said nursing her jet lag over a coffee at the St Regis Hotel.
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.'
