Karen Phang

Senior Foreign Legal Advisor, Linklaters Partner

“I specialise in complex cross-border Corporate M&A transactions with a focus on Indonesia. I offer pragmatic and commercially-oriented solutions to steer our clients through complex regulatory and execution issues on their most strategic transactions in Indonesia.”

Overview

Karen has advised clients on their transactions in Indonesia for more than 15 years. She focuses on M&A, JVs, strategic collaborations and business expansions, primarily in the financial services, digital infrastructure, digital economy, consumer services and real estate sectors. Karen is a specialist in cross-border Indonesian M&A transactions and has been based in Indonesia since 2014, giving her deep insights into the Indonesian market to facilitate the execution of international style M&A deals in Indonesia.

Experience

Karen has advised on many market-leading transactions in Indonesia. These include advising:

EdgePoint Infrastructure (a member of DigitalBridge, one of the world’s largest digital infrastructure firms) on its takeover of PT Centratama Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk, an IDX-listed independent telecom towers infrastructure company and its US$750m sale-and-leaseback acquisition of more than 4,200 telecom towers from PT Indosat Tbk.
Macquarie Asset Management, as part of a consortium, on its c.US$610m acquisition of a significant minority stake in Bersama Digital Infrastructure Asia Pte. Ltd., which holds a majority stake in Indonesia-listed PT Tower Bersama Infrastructure Tbk., a leading independent telecom towers business in Indonesia. This is one of the largest foreign investments into the Indonesian digital infrastructure sector.
Citi on the sale of its consumer banking business in Indonesia to PT Bank UOB Indonesia, as part of the sale of its five consumer bank franchises in Southeast Asia, in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam respectively. This was one of the largest M&A deals in Asia Pacific in 2021.
Astra International on the sale of its stake in PT Bank Permata Tbk to Bangkok Bank Public Company Limited.
FWD Group on its significant minority stake in BRI Life, the life insurance arm of PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk, together with a 15-year bancassurance agreement to be entered into between BRI and BRI Life.
Affinity Equity Partners on its US$150m investment in PT VidioDot Com, Indonesia’s leading over-the-top media service platforms.
A financial sponsor on multiple rounds of investment into each of Gojek and Tokopedia, and the subsequent pre-IPO investment into GoTo.
Nestlé Indonesia on the acquisition of the site for the construction of its new factory in the newly launched Batang Industrial Park, East Java.