Michael Stern
He/himOf CounselMichael Stern advises corporates, private equity funds, infrastructure investors and financial institutions on complex cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and private capital investments. His practice has a particular focus on digital infrastructure, energy and real assets.
Michael has experience advising on the establishment of, and investment in, data centre platforms, strategic joint ventures, and long-term commercial arrangements in the digital infrastructure sector, as well as transactions across the energy, infrastructure, financial services, technology, real estate, shipping and consumer sectors.
Based in Singapore, Michael has been in the Asia-Pacific region since 2021 and has nearly a decade of experience advising on transactions across Asia, Oceania, the Middle East and Europe.
- University of Law, United Kingdom – MSc Law, Business and Management (Distinction), 2017
- Monash University, Australia – BCom, 2015
- Monash University, Australia – LLB (Hons), 2015
EXPERIENCE
- Advised Citigroup on the USD4.7bn sale of its Southeast Asia consumer banking franchises, including the sale of its Philippines franchise to Union Bank of the Philippines and its Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam franchises to United Overseas Bank.*
- Advised BlackRock on its USD200m investment in South Korean solar energy development company Brite Energy Partners.*
- Advised Gaw Capital on the formation of Valent Energy, a 50:50 joint venture with BW Group, to develop, own and operate utility-scale battery energy storage systems in Australia, with over AUD2bn in committed and arranged capital.*
- Advised MUFG Bank on multiple investments in Southeast Asia, including its USD393m investment in Mynt, a leading Philippine fintech company and operator of GCash; USD195m investment in Ascend Money, a Thai fintech company operating the TrueMoney digital payments platform; and USD200m investment in and strategic collaboration with Akulaku, an Indonesian digital banking and consumer finance platform.*
- Advised Mitsui on its acquisition of a 49% interest in one of the world's first e-methanol production and sales businesses, in Denmark, held by European Energy.*
- Advised Princeton Digital Group, a developer and operator of hyperscale data centres across APAC, on its sale of the enterprise segment of its Indonesian data centre business to Sinar Mas.*
- Advised SIX Group on its USD2.75bn sale of its payments unit to Worldline in exchange for a 27% stake.*
- Advised Green Investment Group, the specialist green energy principal investment business of Macquarie Group, on its EUR270m acquisition of a 235 MW onshore wind farm in central Sweden.*
- Advised ENI on its USD3.3bn acquisition of a 20% equity interest in ADNOC Refining.*
- Advised DP World on its GBP322m acquisition of P&O Ferries.*
- Advised a strategic investor in connection with the USD18bn merger of Gojek and Tokopedia, forming one of Southeast Asia’s largest technology platforms.*
- Advised Glendower Capital on its acquisition of a 40% stake in the iconic London department store Liberty, valuing the business at approximately EUR300m.*
- Advised the ASX-listed mining company Universal Coal plc in defending a hostile takeover bid worth AUD175m from TerraCom Limited.*
- Advised Boost Holdings, the Malaysian fintech arm of Axiata Group, on securing a USD20m investment from IFC, valuing the company at USD340m post-money.*
- Advised Equitix Investment Management on its acquisition of a 40% stake in the 316.8MW Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm.*
*Experience gained before joining DLA Piper
- English
- Chinese (Mandarin)