Sam Kelso
Lawyers
Advises on M&A and private equity transactions, focusing on cross-border transactions and investments in and out of the Asia-Pacific region.
Sam advises on M&A and private equity transactions. He has extensive experience in cross-border M&A, investments, joint ventures, de-SPAC and going-private transactions, pre-IPO financings, PIPEs, restructurings and other securities and general corporate matters. He previously worked in our New York, London and Northern California offices.
Experience
North Asia
- ASE $3.4 billion acquisition of SPIL
- Comcast:
- Universal Beijing theme park joint venture with Beijing Shouhuan
- T1 e-sports joint venture with SK Telecom
- $3.8 billion acquisition of DreamWorks Animation
- Federal Reserve Bank of New York $25 billion debt-for-equity exchanges for AIA and ALICO
- Going-private transactions by AsiaInfo, Focus Media, Shanda Games, Bona Film, China Hydro, Jiayuan.com, Ku6 Media and E-House
- Guotai Junan merger with Haitong
- I Squared Capital:
- $1.9 billion acquisition of HGC Global
- investments in HEXA Renewables and Taiwan Cube Energy
- Jebsen joint venture with AB InBev
- Li & Fung on Temasek investment in LF Logistics
- Lufax pre-IPO financing
- MediaTek acquisition of Analog Devices chipset business
- Mongolian Mining:
- sale of 20% of Khangad Exploration
- acquisition of 50% of Erdene Mongol
- Provident SPAC business combination with Perfect
- Tencent investments in 58.com and Linklogis
- TPG:
- investment in Kakao Bank
- acquisition of Health Balance
Southeast Asia
- Black Spade SPAC $23 billion combination with VinFast
- Bravo Investment acquisition of controlling interest in PT BFI Finance Indonesia
- Gojek / GoTo:
- $1.5 billion strategic e-commerce partnership with TikTok
- $18 billion combination with Tokopedia
- I Squared Capital investments in Lightstorm, AsiaNet, Berde and HEXA Renewables
- JB Financial acquisition of Morgan Stanley Vietnam securities brokerage business
- Philippine Long Distance Telephone sale of SPi Global to CVC Capital
- Pre-IPO financings by Carsome, Gojek and Razer
India
- Cube Highways on its InvIT listing and investments by ADIA, Mitsubishi, BCI and Mubadala
- I Squared Capital:
- investments in Polaris and Think Gas
- investment in Amplus Solar and its sale to Petronas
- Morgan Stanley Infrastructure:
- investments and exits from Continuum Green Energy and Second Vivekananda Bridge
- joint venture with Isolux Corsan and its sale to PSP
- Tencent investments in Flipkart, PhonePe, Ola and Udaan
- Warburg Pincus:
- investment in QuEST Global Services
- acquisition of GPX Tire in a Section 363 bankruptcy auction
U.S. and European cross-border
- ASE acquisition of Asteelflash
- Duddell Street SPAC $1 billion business combination with FiscalNote
- Francisco Partners Numonyx semiconductor joint venture with Intel and STMicroelectronics
- Tencent:
- €1.16 billion investment in new Ubisoft subsidiary
- investments in Ubisoft and N26
Recognition
Legal 500 Asia Pacific – Corporate (Including M&A), Hong Kong
Education
LL.M., University of Cambridge
- first-class honours
- Cambridge Commonwealth Scholarship
LL.B., University of Sydney Law School
- first-class honours
B.A., University of Sydney
Prior experience
- Hong Kong office, 2009-present
- Northern California office, 2006-2009
- London office, 2004-2006
- New York office, 2001-2003
Qualifications and admissions
- Hong Kong
- State of California
- State of New York