History – AFG Venture

Our History

AFG Venture Group is a joint venture between two leading corporate advisory firms. Asean Focus Group (AFG) was established in the early 1990s by Peter Church, Michael Fay and Glen Robinson specialising in advising Australian and international companies expanding into the markets of South East Asia and India. Venture Group (VG) was set up in 1996 by a financial professional and quickly established itself through the reputation of its founder Lindley Edwards and became a leading Australian mid-market corporate advisory firm.

AFG had always been interested in developing at some stage an Australian focused business and in the same way VG had always been interested in developing an Asian business. There was clear synergy between the two groups which led to them merging their two businesses in 2009.

Our Focus

Business requires partners, distribution channels, shareholders and funders that are both local and global. We are very focused on assisting our clients to create cross border relationships that add value to what our client is seeking to achieve. Our work is focused on delivering innovative and practical results orientated solutions – aligning the business and financial strategies and getting the results required to create and grow value. We work very much as an organisational partner assisting our clients to achieve their objectives. AFG Venture Group understands the importance of utilising the Pareto principle – focusing on the 20% of initiatives which will cause 80% of the changes which get you our client to the outcomes required. We are independent and work with partners and other advisers when and if appropriate. The AFG Venture Group focus is to understand both the drivers of business performance as well as macro and micro industry, economic and environmental factors.

Our Approach

With a values-based approach to creating value and a commitment to growth companies, AFG Venture Group will work with you and your stakeholders to co-create measurable and sustainable value in an environment of mutual respect, innovation, encouragement and transparency. Results are an outcome of a business partnership with clients – where both parties combine skills, knowledge expertise, experience, strategies and implementation ability to ensure successful outcomes.
Independence, combined with strong ethical values, is inherent throughout our operations. In working with investors or corporate counterparties, we will only present and work as advisor with business propositions that we would be prepared to invest in ourselves.

Our People

Our team of executives and strategic partners provide clients with a unique combination of in-depth industry knowledge and understanding, extensive financial experience, cultural understanding, investor market knowledge as well as business experience. To our knowledge, no other company brings together the same depth of multi-disciplinary expertise and practical business experience in Australia and Asia and has the ability to link with global partners in the rest of the world.

Our Global Network

AFG Venture Group is a member of The Alliance of International Corporate Advisors (www.aicanetwork.com) – a global network of mid-market M&A firms that offers independent and innovative advice from M&A boutiques that are committed to mid-market clients. The alliance amplifies the depth of knowledge and expertise of all the individual members to benefit our clients and brings deep relationships with international corporates. Outside of the AICA alliance, AFG Venture Group has longstanding relationships with other advisors, corporations and investors around the world. These relationships have been developed over the long term.

Our Record

We have undertaken extensive “hands-on” corporate and general advisory assignments, project development work, regional representation and investment throughout the Australian and Asian regions as well as Europe, the Pacific and the North Americas covering a wide range of sectors.