Yorkville Advisors HK has named Katsutomo Fujimoto as senior advisor for Japan. Based in Toyo, Fujimoto will focus on originating and structuring transactions in Japan, one of Yorkville's priority markets in Asia.

Japan is an important market for Yorkville, and Fujimoto will play a vital role in "ensuring we are well positioned with the right expertise and relationships to take advantage of the attractive opportunities in that market", says Anthony Chan, managing director and head of Asia for Yorkville.

Fujimoto has over 20 years of capital markets experience in Japan. He was most recently senior vice-president at Lehman Brothers in Tokyo in its equity division and equity solutions group. Before that, he was a general manager at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo and a director at Nikko Citigroup as well as Daiwa Bank, both in Tokyo.

US-based alternative investments firm Yorkville Advisors established Yorkville Advisors HK in September 2008 to gain a presence in the Asia-Pacific market, particularly in its priority markets of Greater China, Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. Yorkville Advisors HK received licensing approval from Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission in March 2009.

Yorkville Advisors seeks to customise its investment approach to each investee company's needs by offering structured investments in the form of convertible debt, equity-linked instruments, bridge facilities, convertible preference shares and equity lines. It makes these investments in a broad range of transactions, including growth and mature companies, special situations and management or leveraged buyouts.

Founded in January 2001, Yorkville is the exclusive investment manager to a family of private investment funds which focus on providing capital to publicly traded companies and to a lesser extent, private companies. Yorkville's investment strategy is non-directional and uses no short selling. It is headquartered in New Jersey with regional head offices in Hong Kong and London, and a satellite office in Florida.