Shirin Tang

Shirin Tang is a corporate partner based in Morrison & Foerster’s Singapore office. Qualified in New York and Singapore, she specializes in private equity and M&A transactions across Southeast Asia, China and the U.S. Shirin has particular experience in club/consortium transactions and in counseling regional clients on investments in public and private companies in the U.S.

Clients say that “Shirin is our go-to lawyer for high value, high impact transactions” and that "[h]aving her on our side of the table during the more contentious parts of the negotiations allowed us... to push back on a much larger counter party, gaining concessions while keeping the deal intact." They call Shirin “a stand out attorney” who “is able to balance legal analysis against the commercial realities of our transactions and shows incredible judgment in determining the appropriate balance.”

Over the past two years, Shirin has led a number of transactions with deal values in excess of US$1 billion each and US$29 billion in total. These have included multiple award-winning deals such as the US$11.64 billion privatization of GLP Pte. Ltd., the largest-ever private equity buyout of an Asian company.

Asian Legal Business named Shirin one of their “40 Under 40” most outstanding private practice lawyers and in-house counsel in Asia in 2017 and the Southeast Asia Woman Lawyer of the Year in 2018. She was named by Chambers Asia Pacific 2018 as a leader in her field for Corporate/M&A: International (Singapore) and is listed in Asia Business Law Journal's 2018 A List for Singapore, Int'l Financial Law Review’s 2018 Guide to the World’s Leading Law Firms and the APAC Legal 500 for 2018.

Shirin actively champions the advancement of women in the legal profession. As the Asia partner on the firm’s Women’s Strategy Committee, she contributes to the personal and professional development of our female lawyers and helps to lead engagement with our women clients through the annual MoFo Summit for Women In-House Counsel and the Asia MoFo Women initiative.

Shirin received her LL.B. (Hons) from the National University of Singapore and her LL.M. from Harvard Law School. She practiced in New York for over six years and is admitted to the bar in Singapore and New York.

Ms. Tang’s selected representations include acting as counsel for:

• GLP Pte. Ltd. on the establishment of a new US$2 billion fund in China with Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC.
• GLP Pte. Ltd. in its formation of two new European funds, GLP Europe Income Partners I and GLP Europe Development Partners I, which marked the entry of GLP into the European market and increased the size of GLP’s fund management platform by US$4 billion (€3.4 billion) to US$43 billion. These funds were formed in conjunction with GLP’s acquisition of Gazeley, a premier developer, investor and manager of European logistics warehouses and distribution parks.
• Japan Tobacco International on its acquisition of the assets related to the tobacco business of Mighty Corporation for a total of US$936 million. This is one of the largest M&A deals by value in the Philippines in 2017.
• A leading Asian institutional investor in its investment in Grab Inc., including in connection with Grab’s US$2.5 billion Series G financing round, reported to be the largest ever startup financing round in Southeast Asia.
• GLP Pte. Ltd. in its US$11.64 billion privatization, reported to be the largest-ever private equity buyout of an Asian company by enterprise value (ALB SE Asia Law Awards 2018: M&A Deal of the Year (Premium); The Asia Legal Awards 2018: M&A Deal of the Year: Southeast Asia; 2017 Global PERE Awards: Deal of the Year, Asia; FinanceAsia's 2017 Deal of the Year and Best Leveraged Finance Deal).
• IndoSpace on the formation of IndoSpace Core, its US$1.2 billion joint venture with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board which will focus on acquiring and developing modern logistics facilities in India.
• A Chinese strategic investor in its proposed investment in a Singapore telecom company bidding for a 60 MHz lot of spectrum in the 900-MHz and 2.3-GHz bands in the auction for Singapore’s fourth mobile telco license in 2016.
• Boston Consulting Group Digital Ventures in its “baby tech” joint venture with Allianz AG for the XinKaishi heart-rate listening device launched in China.
• GLP Pte. Ltd. in the establishment of US$1.5 billion GLP US Income Partners III, with six leading global institutional investors from Asia, the U.S. and the Middle East.
• GLP Pte. Ltd. in the establishment of GLP Japan Development Venture II, a 50:50 joint venture with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board which is expected to reach US$2 billion over three years.
• GLP Pte. Ltd. in its US$8.1 billion co-investment with an affiliate of Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte. Ltd. to buy one of the largest logistics real estate portfolios in the United States from the Blackstone Group and the related establishment of GLP US Income Partners I and the syndication of 45% of GLP’s interests in GLP US Income Partners I to two leading global institutional investors from Asia and one from North America. This deal was awarded Global Deal of the Year and North America Deal of the Year by the 2014 Global PERE (Private Equity Real Estate) Awards and recently won the prestigious M&A Deal of the Year at The Asian Lawyer Emerging Markets Awards 2015.
• GLP Pte. Ltd. on the acquisition of a US$4.55 billion U.S. logistics portfolio from Industrial Income Trust making it the second largest logistics property owner and operator in the United States within a year of market entry, and the establishment of GLP US Income Partners II with three leading global institutional investors.
• A leading Asian sovereign wealth fund in its investment in Grab Inc.
• Cordlife Group Limited (SGX-listed) on the sale of its equity interests in and convertible note issued by China Cord Blood Corporation (NYSE-listed) to Golden Meditech Holdings Limited (SEHK-listed).
• GLP Pte. Ltd. in its US$1.1 billion fund, GLP Brazil Income Partners II, with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and a leading North American institutional investor.
• GLP Pte. Ltd. in the establishment and expansion of its US$2.2 billion fund with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to develop logistics properties in Japan.
• Cordlife Group Limited and Magnum Opus International Holdings Limited in their acquisition from Golden Meditech Holdings Limited of a 7% senior convertible note due 2017 issued by China Cord Blood Corporation, a NYSE-listed company.
• LinkedIn on its China joint venture with Sequoia China and China Broadband Capital (CBC).
• The Special Committee of the Board of Directors of AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc., an IT software solutions and services company, in its US$900 million going-private transaction.
• An Asia-based investment company in its co-investment with AEA Investors LP in the €640 million acquisition of part of the water technologies division of Siemens AG.
• IntercontinentalExchange Group, Inc. in its acquisition of the Singapore Mercantile Exchange Pte. Ltd.
• Sanofi in various matters, including Sanofi’s US$520.6 million acquisition of a U.S.-listed specialty pharmaceutical company operating exclusively in China.
• Infocomm Investments Pte. Ltd., the venture capital arm of The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, in various investments in U.S. technology companies.
• Genting Berhad in a Series C investment in a California biotech company.
• An Asian sovereign wealth fund in various co-investments, including in infrastructure assets in South Africa and oil-and-gas assets in the U.S., including a co-investment with Apollo Global Management for the US$7.15 billion acquisition of El Paso Corp.’s oil and gas exploration business. 
• Barry Callebaut in its US$950 million acquisition of the cocoa ingredients division of Petra Foods Limited, an SGX listed company.
• A Japanese multinational in its proposed US$1 billion acquisition of a precision engineering firm headquartered in Singapore.
• An Asian sovereign wealth fund in a US$1.4 billion joint venture joint venture for the acquisition of a portfolio of logistics properties in Brazil. The deal was awarded Global Deal of the Year by the Global PERE Awards 2012.
• Petronas in its acquisition of a 30% stake in GMR Energy (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. from GMR Infrastructure (Singapore) Pte. Limited.
• Petronas in the development of its refinery and petrochemical integrated development project (RAPID) in Southern Johor.
• General Lighting Company PJSC and The Carlyle Group (as partial owner, through affiliates, of GLC), in its US$60 million acquisition of Davex (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd from MWE Holdings Berhad.
• Citi Venture Capital International in its disposition of its 70% stake in a cement company in Vietnam.
• Premium Lead Company in the US$2.3 billion management-led buyout of Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited (Deal of the Year (Large) – 2012 Asia Pacific M&A Atlas Awards).
• The Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam in a US$567.3 million investment by Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd.