James Mythen

James Mythen is a Partner at A&O Shearman in Singapore, focusing on Mergers and Acquisitions. He is an experienced corporate partner with over two decades of advising on high-profile M&A, private equity and infrastructure transactions throughout Southeast Asia, with a particular emphasis on transactions involving Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

He regularly advises corporates, PE houses, sovereign funds and financial institutions on public and private acquisitions, strategic portfolio investments and exits, and complex joint ventures.

James possesses deep experience in highly regulated industries, with a core focus on infrastructure (primarily spanning digital, social and transportation assets), telecommunications, banking, insurance and life sciences. He is particularly valued by clients for his extensive regional cross-border knowledge, having lived and worked in London, Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore. He leads A&O Shearman’s Malaysia, Brunei and Myanmar Foreign Desks and is ranked in all of the major directories as an outstanding lawyer.

His representative matters include advising Telenor on the US$15 billion merger of Celcom and Digi, one of Malaysia’s largest ever M&A deals, creating the largest telecoms business in the country; advising EQT and Temasek on the sale of O2 Power to JSW Neo Energy for US$1.5 billion; advising Telenor on the US$8.6 billion merger of Thailand’s Total Access Communication and True Corporation; advising Macquarie Capital on its acquisition of a majority stake in CloudExtel, a leading Indian digital infrastructure operator; advising EQT Partners on its acquisition of a significant minority interest in EC-Council; advising IHH Healthcare on its US$900 million acquisition of Island Hospital, Penang; advising a leading Asian sovereign wealth fund and Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation on their US$1 billion acquisition of a 35% interest in PT Jasa Marga Transjawa Tol; advising Investcorp on its acquisition of a 51% stake in PT Multitrend Indo; advising Actis Capital on the divestment of Singapore Intercultural School Group of Schools to Adivira; advising Allianz on its pre-conditional offer for a 51% stake in Income Insurance Limited for approximately SGD 2.2 billion; advising FWD Group on its acquisition of PT Commonwealth Life and a 15-year bancassurance arrangement; advising CVC DIF on its acquisition of a 49.9% interest in ECO Industrial Environmental Engineering; advising QBE Insurance Group on the disposal of its insurance operations in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands; and advising Khazanah and Malaysia Airlines on the US$1.6 billion global restructuring of Malaysia Airlines.

His expertise covers payments and fintech, insurance, private equity, emerging growth, corporate and M&A, M&A, JVs and corporate reorganisations, and real estate, with industries spanning banks, life sciences and healthcare, food and cosmetics, energy, power, infrastructure and transport, private capital, and insurance.

He has been recognised by Asia Pacific Legal 500 and Chambers Asia Pacific, which noted that he is “always practical and commercially savvy,” “very pragmatic and supportive,” and that “his practical legal advice is solution oriented.”