Michelle Virgiany

Practice Areas

Michelle is a corporate lawyer on secondment to Hiswara Bunjamin & Tandjung from Herbert Smith Freehills. She focuses on the financial services and technology sectors, with expertise in both transactional and advisory work.

Michelle advises clients in the digital economy sector on investment structuring, licensing, and roll-out of new business models. She also represents clients in fundraising, joint ventures, M&A and other corporate transactions, as well as commercial and business collaboration arrangements.

Her clients range from established players including banks, insurance companies and telecommunication providers to new market entrants such as payment companies, digital platforms and cryptocurrency exchanges.

Career

Michelle has both private practice and in-house experience, outside Indonesia as well as in Indonesia. Earlier in her career, she worked at the Singapore and Jakarta offices of an international investment bank, providing advice on bilateral and syndicated lending, data privacy and outsourcing, and corporate banking product roll-outs across APAC.

Michelle is a member of Herbert Smith Freehills’ Emerging Technology Group and part of the firm’s Global AI Advisory Group. She is also the Gender Equity Matters Co-chair for Southeast Asia, and the Pro Bono lead at Hiswara Bunjamin & Tandjung.

Publications

Michelle has co-authored the following recent publications:

• Non-Individuals May Now Open Crypto Trading Accounts in Indonesia (November 2024)

• New Regulation on Technological Innovation in Indonesia’s Financial Services Sector (May 2024)

• Fintech Trends and Developments in the Chambers Global Practice Guide to Fintech 2024: Indonesia (April 2024)

• Ethical Guidelines on Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Indonesia (February 2024)

• New Rules for Peer-to-Peer Lending Sector (February 2024)

• New E-commerce Regulation Introduces New Requirements for Social Commerce Platforms and Imported Products (October 2023)

• Fintech Trends and Developments in the Chambers Global Practice Guide to Fintech 2023: Indonesia (May 2023)

Work Highlights

• Warburg Pincus on the acquisition of PT Asuransi Bina Dana Arta Tbk to create a regional digital insurance platform, which was the first acquisition of a listed Indonesian insurance company by a private equity firm

• Multipolar (part of the Lippo Group) on its cryptocurrency trading platform joint venture with Luno Group and its marketplace/peer-to-peer lending platform joint venture with PingAn

• Bank Danamon on the sale of its general insurance subsidiary, Adira Insurance, to Zurich through a competitive auction process, which included negotiation of two strategic bancassurance and distribution arrangements

• Vidio on its first external fundraising round, a US$150 million investment by Affinity Equity Partners, and subsequently by other investors including Sinar Mas Group and Grab

• Grab on its strategic partnership with Emtek, an Indonesian listed company with TMT as one of its areas of focus

Languages Spoken

English, Indonesian

Education

Awards