Lau Kiat Wee
Director
Advocate & Solicitor, Singapore
LL.B. (Hons), National University of Singapore
Lau Kiat Wee is a Mergers and Acquisitions specialist and has extensive experience in M&A transactions involving significant real property holding entities and banks, as well as in cross border M&A transactions. He is also the co-head of the firm’s Sustainability Practice.
He specialises in advising on private equity and venture capital investments as well as on strategic or tactical opportunities investments. Recent transactions have also involved investments in e-commerce, med-tech and fintech entities.
Kiat Wee also advises fund managers on regulatory matters as well as on investments, restructurings, acquisitions and disposals in respect of funds, including transactions involving variable capital companies in Singapore (VCCs).
Significant transactions which Kiat Wee has advised on include:
- Tencent Holdings Limited in its investment in Flipkart, which operates India’s leading e-commerce marketplace, as part of a consortium which includes Microsoft and eBay in a US$1.4 billion fundraising round;
- JTC Corporation in relation to the merger with Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited of four of their operating subsidiaries, Ascendas Pte. Ltd., Jurong International Holdings Pte. Ltd., Surbana International Consultants Holdings Pte. Ltd. and Singbridge Pte. Ltd. into a combined integrated platform for sustainable urban development – the merged group’s aggregate value is approximately S$5 billion based on underlying entities and this transaction won the “M&A Deal of the Year: Southeast Asia” at The Asian Lawyer’s Asia Legal Awards 2016;
- Nestlé S.A. in its US$11.85 billion acquisition of Pfizer Inc.’s infant nutrition unit;
- City Developments Limited (“CDL“) in the acquisition by Golden Crest Holdings, a joint venture formed between CDL and Alpha Asia Macro Trends Fund II (an investment fund managed by Alpha Investment Partners Limited), of three of CDL’s prime office assets in Singapore worth approximately S$1.1 billion, via a new profit participation securities (PPS) platform;
- Bain Capital Ltd. in its acquisition of The Dow Chemical Company’s Styron unit, the world’s biggest producer of polystyrene plastic, for about US$1.63 billion;
- Ascott Residence Trust Management Limited, as manager of Ascott Residence Trust, in the acquisition of interests in two Asian and 26 European properties from The Ascott Limited for approximately S$1.39 billion;
- PETRONAS International Corporation Ltd. in its acquisition of a 30% stake in GMR Energy (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.;
- PAG Asia Capital in its investment in Paradise Group Holdings Pte. Ltd. which operates the Paradise restaurant group in South East Asia;
- Morgan Stanley Infrastructure in the proposed sale of India wind farm assets to SunEdison (reported to be the biggest buyout in India’s clean energy sector at the time of announcement) and other corporate transactions;
- Navis Capital Partners, in the sale of its indirect stake in PT Efficient English Services, the operator of Wall Street Institute in Indonesia, to Pearson PLC, a leading global publishing and education company;
- Blackstone Group in various cross-border transactions as well as investment in and management of tactical opportunities assets;
- Asean Finance Corporation (now known as Resona Merchant Bank) in its takeover by Resona, which was reported to be the first takeover by Resona since its formation as a merged entity in 2002;
- EFG Bank AG, Singapore Branch in the acquisition of BSI Bank Limited’s Singapore private banking business, which was reported to result in the formation of one of the largest private banks in Switzerland with approximately CHF 170 billion in assets under management, for a purchase price of approximately CHF 1,328 million;
- Surbana Jurong in its acquisition of SAA Architects, a leading architecture firm in Singapore;
- ShopBack, an online shopping and cashback company, in fundraising from a consortium of investors including Softbank;
- Scale360, a digital banking platform provider with presence in Europe and South-East Asia, in fundraising transactions; and
- VentureCraft Holdings, an accelerator for the MedTech industry under SPRING Singapore’s Sector-Specific Accelerator (SSA) programme and a venture capital firm which is in the MedTech, BioTech and Digital Health space, in fundraising transactions in excess of S$50 million and other M&A transactions.
MORE ABOUT LAU KIAT WEE
MEMBERSHIPS & ASSOCIATIONS
- Member, Law Society of Singapore
- Member, Singapore Academy of Law
AWARDS
PRACTICE AREAS
Lau Kiat Wee
Director
Advocate & Solicitor, Singapore
LL.B. (Hons), National University of Singapore
Lau Kiat Wee is a Mergers and Acquisitions specialist and has extensive experience in M&A transactions involving significant real property holding entities and banks, as well as in cross border M&A transactions. He is also the co-head of the firm’s Sustainability Practice.
He specialises in advising on private equity and venture capital investments as well as on strategic or tactical opportunities investments. Recent transactions have also involved investments in e-commerce, med-tech and fintech entities.
Kiat Wee also advises fund managers on regulatory matters as well as on investments, restructurings, acquisitions and disposals in respect of funds, including transactions involving variable capital companies in Singapore (VCCs).
Significant transactions which Kiat Wee has advised on include:
- Tencent Holdings Limited in its investment in Flipkart, which operates India’s leading e-commerce marketplace, as part of a consortium which includes Microsoft and eBay in a US$1.4 billion fundraising round;
- JTC Corporation in relation to the merger with Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited of four of their operating subsidiaries, Ascendas Pte. Ltd., Jurong International Holdings Pte. Ltd., Surbana International Consultants Holdings Pte. Ltd. and Singbridge Pte. Ltd. into a combined integrated platform for sustainable urban development – the merged group’s aggregate value is approximately S$5 billion based on underlying entities and this transaction won the “M&A Deal of the Year: Southeast Asia” at The Asian Lawyer’s Asia Legal Awards 2016;
- Nestlé S.A. in its US$11.85 billion acquisition of Pfizer Inc.’s infant nutrition unit;
- City Developments Limited (“CDL“) in the acquisition by Golden Crest Holdings, a joint venture formed between CDL and Alpha Asia Macro Trends Fund II (an investment fund managed by Alpha Investment Partners Limited), of three of CDL’s prime office assets in Singapore worth approximately S$1.1 billion, via a new profit participation securities (PPS) platform;
- Bain Capital Ltd. in its acquisition of The Dow Chemical Company’s Styron unit, the world’s biggest producer of polystyrene plastic, for about US$1.63 billion;
- Ascott Residence Trust Management Limited, as manager of Ascott Residence Trust, in the acquisition of interests in two Asian and 26 European properties from The Ascott Limited for approximately S$1.39 billion;
- PETRONAS International Corporation Ltd. in its acquisition of a 30% stake in GMR Energy (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.;
- PAG Asia Capital in its investment in Paradise Group Holdings Pte. Ltd. which operates the Paradise restaurant group in South East Asia;
- Morgan Stanley Infrastructure in the proposed sale of India wind farm assets to SunEdison (reported to be the biggest buyout in India’s clean energy sector at the time of announcement) and other corporate transactions;
- Navis Capital Partners, in the sale of its indirect stake in PT Efficient English Services, the operator of Wall Street Institute in Indonesia, to Pearson PLC, a leading global publishing and education company;
- Blackstone Group in various cross-border transactions as well as investment in and management of tactical opportunities assets;
- Asean Finance Corporation (now known as Resona Merchant Bank) in its takeover by Resona, which was reported to be the first takeover by Resona since its formation as a merged entity in 2002;
- EFG Bank AG, Singapore Branch in the acquisition of BSI Bank Limited’s Singapore private banking business, which was reported to result in the formation of one of the largest private banks in Switzerland with approximately CHF 170 billion in assets under management, for a purchase price of approximately CHF 1,328 million;
- Surbana Jurong in its acquisition of SAA Architects, a leading architecture firm in Singapore;
- ShopBack, an online shopping and cashback company, in fundraising from a consortium of investors including Softbank;
- Scale360, a digital banking platform provider with presence in Europe and South-East Asia, in fundraising transactions; and
- VentureCraft Holdings, an accelerator for the MedTech industry under SPRING Singapore’s Sector-Specific Accelerator (SSA) programme and a venture capital firm which is in the MedTech, BioTech and Digital Health space, in fundraising transactions in excess of S$50 million and other M&A transactions.
MORE ABOUT LAU KIAT WEE
MEMBERSHIPS & ASSOCIATIONS
- Member, Law Society of Singapore
- Member, Singapore Academy of Law
AWARDS
PRACTICE AREAS