AWR Lloyd was conceived and established at the turn of the millennium, on 4th February 2000, the first day of the ‘Year of the Golden Dragon’. Our mission, for over two decades now, has been to act as a catalyst for economic development, sustainability and greater security in the Indo-Pacific region, through supporting our clients in the design, development, execution and communication of innovative and value-creating strategies.

The firm was launched from the very beginning in a spirit of enterprise and adventure. The three founding partners had been working together at Paribas, an investment bank in Paris, in the 1990s and were frustrated with big company politics, bureaucracy and inertia. The founders decided to break-free and establish their own advisory firm with an emphasis on accountability, agility and innovation. During the course of 1999, as Paribas waited to be engulfed by the even bigger and more conservative commercial banking culture of BNP, the founders made their plans and then one-by-one jumped ship.

Initially launched as ‘AWR’ in Paris, the firm’s first assignment in 2000 was working with the World Bank and Paribas to privatize the Romanian aluminium industry, an M&A transaction which was successfully completed. Two of the founders, Alex Wood and Jeremy Ayre quickly decided, however, to focus the firm on the resources, energy and infrastructure sectors of the ‘Eastern Hemisphere’ and by 2002 the firm had been re-established in its current form in Hong Kong. George Lloyd joined as Chairman in 2003 and the firm was renamed ‘AWR Lloyd’. In 2006, the firm merged with Asia Energy Resources, a power and gas sector industry research boutique led by Franck Constant.

Alex Wood had moved to Bangkok in 2001 to develop the firm’s Asia business including supporting the expansion of Banpu, a Thai-listed energy group, into Indonesia and helping them develop a best practice investor relations programme. Jeremy Ayre moved to Sydney to develop the firm’s Australia business with George Lloyd, including work which led to the formation of Felix Resources, a mining company ultimately acquired by Yanzhou, the Chinese coal giant. Other early work included advising companies in the vanadium battery, renewable energy, fuel cells, oil tank terminals, mining and power sectors in Southeast Asia.

By mid-decade the firm had completed a $450M M&A deal in Australia, was supporting Banpu’s growth across the region – and was executing its first consulting assignments in Vietnam. Between 2006 and 2010 AWR Lloyd expanded the geographic and sectoral scope of its business substantially, for example with an active Korea business (and Seoul office) and several real estate clients including Raimon Land in Thailand, who, with its primary shareholder, IFA Hotels & Resorts in the Middle East, remained a client for over 6 years. During this period, the firm also acted as advisor to a number of larger transactions including the IPO of PetroVietnam Finance Corp on the Ho Chi Minh City stock exchange, the $2.3 billion IPO of ITMG on the Indonesia stock exchange, a $420M M&A deal in China – and a private placement for a listed real estate group.

Alex Wood became CEO of AWR Lloyd in 2010. During the period 2010-16, the firm originated and completed a number of big-ticket corporate finance and strategy consulting assignments including for Banpu (coal, power), ThaiOil (oil refining, petchem, power, bio-fuels), SPRC-Chevron (oil refining), Bangchak (oil refining, marketing, bio-fuels, solar) and the Thai Ministry of Science & Technology (satellites). AWR Lloyd also did some of its first consulting work in Myanmar (four infrastructure assignments). During this phase, Tuong Thi Thu Hanh joined AWR Lloyd as Managing Director – Greater Mekong Region and head of the firm’s Ho Chi Minh City office. Nadda Trisrisupa also joined and was eventually appointed as Managing Director for Corporate Development.

In 2017, AWR Lloyd was restructured, with some former directors becoming non-executives or leaving the firm to pursue other ventures. A number of new partners joined in their place. Over the past two years, AWR Lloyd’s business has evolved in exciting new directions.