Michael S Carl

Practice Areas

Arbitration and dispute resolution, banking and finance, Chinese in-bound investment, corporate law, merger filings and anti-trust, mergers and acquisitions, mining and natural resources, projects and project financing, real estate, restructuring and insolvency, TMT, fintech and digital economy

Career

Michael S. Carl joined SSEK in 2004 and has more than 30 years of experience practicing law in Southeast Asia, principally in Indonesia. His practice is oriented toward corporate law and foreign investment, energy and mining, finance, insolvency and restructurings, mergers and acquisitions and technology. Michael is particularly well known for his work with clients on the fast-changing Indonesian regulatory environment.

Michael is praised for his "excellent technical grasp of both Indonesian law and the Indonesian language, which makes him unique amongst the expatriate lawyers in Jakarta" (IFLR1000).

Michael is a graduate of Harvard University and holds law degrees from leading universities in the United States and Indonesia. He is fluent in Indonesian.

Prior to joining SSEK, Michael was associated with the international law firm Baker & McKenzie in its Singapore and Bangkok offices, where he handled capital markets and investment transactions and represented Indonesian and Thai companies in US capital markets offerings and debt restructurings. He was also previously associated with Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP as part of the firm’s capital markets group.

Professional Memberships

• California State Bar

• Interlex Group

• International Bar Association (IBA)

• Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA)

• American Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia

Work Highlights

• Indonesian merger filing panel member for leading Magic Circle global anti-trust practice.

• Various mining acquisitions and joint ventures for Chinese mining conglomerates.

• Indonesian counsel to Grab in connection with its US$40 billion merger with special purpose acquisition company Altimeter Growth Corp. and Nasdaq listing.

• Indonesian counsel to Grab Inc. in connection with its acquisition of the Southeast Asia business and assets of Uber.

• Indonesian counsel to Princeton Digital Group in the acquisition of a controlling stake in a suite of Indonesian data centers and in subsequent capital raisings.

• Sole counsel to a major US technology company in the acquisition of land plots and roll out of its data center operations in Indonesia.

• Indonesian counsel to China Shenhua in the US$1 billion project financing of the Jawa-7 2x1,000 MW coal-fired IPP.

• Acted for a Chinese company in the acquisition of several hydroelectric power plants under a single holding company.

• Sole Indonesian counsel in the debt restructuring of PT Arpeni Pratama Ocean Line, involving a debt restructuring, Indonesian bankruptcy and PKPU proceedings, SIAC arbitration over a bank credit and disposition of security and U.S. Chapter 15 proceedings and capital raising.

• Advised PepsiCo, Inc. on the sale of its stake in and termination of its joint venture in Indonesia with PT Indofood CBP Sukses Makmur.

• Acted for SoftBank Vision Fund in its investments in PT Tokopedia, the leading Indonesian e-commerce market platform, and Grab. Inc., the leading Southeast Asian provider of ride-hailing services.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

Indonesia

Languages Spoken

English – Native

Indonesian – Full professional proficiency

Thai – Proficient

Publications

• Jurisdictional overview on ESG reporting, transition planning and greenwashing

• Indonesia – New Merger Filing Regulation

Education

Awards