Ken Stevens, the co-founder of private equity firm Leopard Capital, has 23 years of experience doing market research and investments in Southeast Asia, Forbes contributor Jon Springer writes. He served as head of research and was an investment banker at Thailand's CLSA Securities. In 2007, he co-founded Leopard Capital with the aim of making it the premier private equity firm that would look for opportunities in frontier markets in Asia.

In an interview with Springer, Ken Stevens describes Leopard Capital as an opportunistic investor and that it is "agnostic" as far as the type of sector in which it can invest in is concerned. He does say that there are particular sectors that stand out as far as frontier markets go. These include financial services, hotel and tourism, consumer goods and services, some property segments and power which he thinks will grow anywhere from two to three times the gross domestic product multiple.

Stevens also finds the renewable energy and agriculture sectors interesting because development banks and the international community are giving their support to frontier markets in Asia to improve these industries.

When asked how their firm identifies countries to invest in, Stevens said Leopard Capital prefers to make deals in countries where there is a dearth of access to capital for long-term development. They also look consider how open a country is to foreign investment. That is, if things turn sour, their firm determines if a foreign investor be able to turn to that country's legal system or have other means of recourse. Stevens said another criterion they consider is if companies existing in the country make good partners. So far, they have found good partners in all the frontier countries that they have done business in, the report said.

Stevens told Springer, "In a nutshell, we look for environments where we can be competitive in providing long-term capital. We prefer countries and industries where there are no huge, dominant groups that are going to be the 800-pound gorillas that basically do as they please."