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Indonesia

Indonesia is the largest and most populous market in Southeast Asia. Its relatively young population of 260 million represents both a significant workforce and an important consumer market. These fundamentals, along with economic reforms introduced in recent years, make Indonesia an important and attractive investment destination in the region.

Why consider us?

With our long-standing experience in Indonesia, our strength is in advising you whether you are looking to invest in Indonesia, or if you are based in Indonesia and looking to invest globally. While our firm does not maintain a physical presence in Indonesia, our multi-disciplined and multi-jurisdictional team is well equipped to advise you on the structuring of your investments via financial centres like Singapore and Hong Kong to ensure both economic and tax efficiency.

To meet the needs of our clients on the ground in Indonesia, we offer a full suite of legal services through our association with KARNA Partnership, a dynamic and multi-service law firm based in Indonesia. This brings a wealth of local expertise and knowledge that complements our international reach.

We can offer clarity on the nuances of Indonesian regulations, operating environment, economic programmes and tax policies, in addition to being proficient in Bahasa Indonesia. With our global network, you can depend on a deep bench of expertise in transactional matters and practical on-the-ground knowledge and experience when you work with us.

Association with KARNA Partnership

In a significant move to further enhance our offering, Withers' association with KARNA Partnership, a dynamic multi-service law firm based in Indonesia, has brought additional depth of local expertise and knowledge.

The association bolsters our capacity to deliver comprehensive legal advice, both within Indonesia and internationally. As associated firms, Withers and KARNA Partnership work closely to expand the range of cross-border advice available to our respective clients by sharing knowledge and expertise, collaborating on marketing efforts, making mutual referrals and developing joint training programmes.


How can we help?

Foreign investments into Indonesia

Working with local partners, we can provide effective legal solutions to ownership structure and help you navigate foreign direct investment regulations. Our tax specialists can guide you towards arriving at an optimum tax structure both from the point of view of the jurisdiction of investment and the jurisdiction of remittance.


Outbound Indonesian investments

We can advise on mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments, leveraged buyouts, joint ventures and other corporate transactions. With offices across 16 countries, including all major financial centres including Singapore, Hong Kong, London and New York, we have considerable experience to guide you through the complex negotiations necessary to complete a cross-border merger, acquisition or disposal, whether you are an institutional investor or a leading Indonesian group.


Private client and tax

As the largest international private client practice in the world, we can help you with estate planning. This includes advising on wills, trusts, family governance/constitution and family/shareholders’ agreements. We can also assist you in establishing family offices, private trust companies, family charities and foundations.

With offices across Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States, you will benefit from coverage that other law firms in this area cannot match. We can help you achieve success, as our clients have in various fields. They range from senior executives to multi-generational families, to owners, managers and investors in private capital, as well as some of the world’s wealthiest people. We have advised 70% of the UK Sunday Times Rich List, 35% of the UK Sunday Times Top Philanthropists, 25% of Forbes 400 List of the Wealthiest Americans, 52% of the Singapore Forbes Rich List, 35% of the Hong Kong Forbes Rich List and 35% of the Asia Forbes Richest Families List.


Immigration

We can help you with immigration issues such as acquiring citizenship or residence in key jurisdictions including Singapore, Hong Kong, US, UK, Italy as well as second passports via citizenship by investment programmes. Our experience in this area includes assisting successful entrepreneurs, high net worth individuals (HNWIs), and family offices.


Dispute resolution

By combining local and international litigation expertise with strategic and commercial advice, our strength is in helping you to achieve the best outcome. Our experience extends to almost all areas almost all areas of litigation, including asset recovery, company disputes, contract disputes, energy, insurance, fiduciary, professional negligence, health and safety, restructuring and insolvency.

We will work hand in hand with you anywhere in the world to resolve international arbitration matters, including major commercial and investor-state disputes across a wide range of sectors.


Financial services regulations

From setting up an investment fund or a digital bank; to navigating the regulatory complexities of the payments system, we can scope out the extent to which regulations apply to your business and guide you through exemptions from regulation. You can also depend on us to assist you in applying for appropriate approvals from regulators.

Our considerable experience allows us to ensure that you are in compliance with regulations in different jurisdictions. This includes the UK Financial Conduct Authority, Monetary Authority of Singapore, Securities & Futures Commission of Hong Kong, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Indonesia Financial Services Authority (OJK).


Projects

We can advise you from the early stages of project structuring, on risk allocation between different counterparts, bidding procedures and concession agreements, as well as on project bankability and security arrangements. You can also count on us to recommend optimal ways to manage and resolve complex disputes, including with states and regulators, to make sure that your interests are protected. You will benefit from our extensive experience in advising some of the world’s largest energy companies, governments and shareholders on acquisitions, contracts and disputes.


Financing

From borrowing to lending, we can advise you on the entire spectrum of financing needs. You can expect up-to-date knowledge on acquisition finance, Islamic finance (Sharia-compliant investments and issuing of Sukuks), general bank lending (syndicated lending, structured and leveraged finance) and project financing for infrastructure and industrial projects. Should you decide to consider refinancing, we can also assist you in the refinancing and restructuring of existing loans.


Restructuring, refinancing and workouts

Whether you are a director or part of a leadership team, we can work closely with you and your team to preserve value in your organisation and where possible return operations to health and success through restructuring, refinancing and workouts. With over 150 disputes specialists globally across 17 offices, we are well-placed to help where your restructuring has assets held cross-border.


Capital Markets

With multinational teams across the world, we can guide and advise you on seeking IPOs and other fund raising activities in Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, London and other European stock exchanges. On offerings with a US element, you will benefit from our extensive knowledge of Regulation S offshore offerings and exempt offerings into the US under Rule 144A.


Intellectual Property

We can help you through every stage of the development and life cycle of rights such as patents, copyright, trademarks and database and design rights – from creation to enforcement. Our strength is in helping you to protect and commercialize your intellectual property, and helping you to implement tax-efficient licensing and exploitation strategies.

Track record

Our team

Joel Shen

Joel Shen

Partner | Singapore

Joel Shen

Partner | Singapore

Corporate

Guan Feng Chen

Guan Feng Chen

Consultant | Singapore

Guan Feng Chen

Consultant | Singapore

Banking and finance

Chenthil Kumarasingam

Chenthil Kumarasingam

Partner | Singapore

Chenthil Kumarasingam

Partner | Singapore

Litigation and Arbitration

Daniel Yong

Daniel Yong

Partner | Singapore

Daniel Yong

Partner | Singapore

Corporate

Shaun Leong

Shaun Leong

Partner | Singapore

Shaun Leong

Partner | Singapore

Litigation and Arbitration

Stacy Choong

Stacy Choong

Partner | Singapore

Stacy Choong

Partner | Singapore

Private client and tax

Insight

Get in touch

Our website will give you a flavour of the advice we provide - if you would like to talk to us for more information, please contact our client services team who will be happy to assist.

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