Sam Kelso
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 mergers and acquisitions and private equity transactions. He has extensive experience in cross-border transactions and investments in and out of the Asia-Pacific region across various sectors, including technology, media and telecom, energy/infrastructure, consumer, healthcare and financial services.
Sam represents global and Asian companies and investment funds in their strategic mergers and acquisitions, investments, pre-IPO financings, SPAC and going-private transactions, PIPEs, joint ventures, restructurings and other securities and general corporate matters. He previously worked in our New York, London and Northern California offices.
Experience highlights
North Asia
- Mongolian Mining’s acquisition of 50% of Erdene Mongol
- Provident SPAC’s business combination with Perfect
- Universal’s Beijing theme park joint venture with Beijing Shouhuan
- Comcast’s T1 e-sports joint venture with SK Telecom
- I Squared Capital:
- investments in HEXA Renewables and Taiwan Cube Energy
- $1.9 billion acquisition of HGC Global
- Lufax’s pre-IPO fundraising
- Li & Fung on Temasek’s investment in LF Logistics
- Jebsen’s Blue Girl beer joint venture with AB InBev
- ASE’s $3.4 billion acquisition of SPIL
- Tencent’s pre-IPO investments in 58.com and Linklogis
- Going-private transactions by AsiaInfo, Focus Media, Shanda Games, Bona Film, China Hydro, Jiayuan.com, Ku6 Media and E-House
- Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s $25 billion debt-for-equity exchanges for AIA and ALICO
Southeast Asia
- Black Spade SPAC’s $23 billion combination with VinFast
- Bravo Investment’s acquisition of a controlling interest in PT BFI Finance Indonesia
- Gojek’s $18 billion combination with Tokopedia and pre-IPO fundraising
- Carsome’s pre-IPO fundraising
- JB Financial’s acquisition of Morgan Stanley’s Vietnam securities brokerage business
- Razer’s pre-IPO fundraising
- Philippine Long Distance Telephone’s sale of SPi Global to CVC Capital
India
- Cube Highways on its InvIT listing and investments by BCI and Mubadala
- I Squared Capital:
- investments in Polaris Smart Metering and Think Gas
- investment in Amplus Solar and its sale to Petronas
- Tencent’s investments in Flipkart, PhonePe, Ola and Udaan
- Morgan Stanley Infrastructure:
- investments in Continuum Wind and Second Vivekananda Bridge
- joint venture with Isolux Corsan and its sale to PSP
- Warburg Pincus:
- investment in QuEST Global Services
- Section 363 acquisition of GPX Tire
U.S. cross-border
- Duddell Street SPAC’s $1 billion business combination with FiscalNote
- Comcast’s $3.8 billion acquisition of DreamWorks Animation
- Francisco Partners’ Numonyx semiconductor joint venture with Intel and STMicroelectronics
- MediaTek’s acquisition of Analog Devices’ chipset business
European cross-border
- Tencent’s investment in Ubisoft and N26
- ASE’s acquisition of Asteelflash
Credentials
Recognition
Legal 500 Asia Pacific – Corporate (Including M&A), Hong Kong, Rising Star
Education
- first-class honours
- Cambridge Commonwealth Scholarship
- first-class honours
Professional history
- Counsel, 2013-present
- Davis Polk since 2001
- 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