Elsa Chen

Partner (Chief Economist)

Elsa is Regional Co-Head of the Firm’s Competition & Foreign Investment Review Practice, and Co-Head of its ESG & Public Policy Practice.

She regularly assists clients on complex antitrust and foreign investments review matters in Singapore and beyond, including merger control, global cartel and abuse of dominance investigations. Her experience ranges from strategy and advocacy in submissions to negotiation of commitments to obtain merger control and foreign investment approvals in and outside of Singapore.

Since the inception of Singapore’s national security investment screening regime in 2024 (the Significant Investments Review Act 2024, and the Transport Sector (Critical Firms) Act 2024), she has advised designated and non-designated entities, and investors, including multinational corporations, Singapore conglomerates, private equity firms and hedge funds, across a wide spectrum of sectors, including aviation, banking, consumer products, defence, financial services, insurance, logistics, petrochemicals, port operations, real estate, technology, manufacturing, telecommunications, and transportation, on compliance with the regimes, engagement with the regulators, and securing the requisite approvals.

Elsa is the only economist in Asia cited as a Global Elite Thought Leader by Lexology Index: Thought Leaders: Competition 2024. She is also noted by Lexology Index to be “the top merger control practitioner in Singapore”, “a leading name in the Singaporean market” and praised for her “analytical and practical approach”, “intelligent and insightful”, and “able to provide her views in concise and readily understood manner”. The Legal 500 also notes that Elsa has a “wealth of experience”, and is “excellent in addressing client’s questions and good at handling complex issues with care and sensitivity”. She has also been lauded for bringing “a fresh perspective on competition matters from her economist background”.

Elsa’s ESG and public policy experience ranges from assisting clients on ESG trends and implications, sustainability reporting, codes of conduct, advocacy, and assisting on legislative changes. Elsa also regularly assists clients on the antitrust, consumer protection and public policy aspects of ESG matters, including collaboration agreements, merger control, and greenwashing claims.

Elsa joined the Firm in 2007. She was previously from the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore, which oversees competition and the significant investments review legislation in Singapore, and was also a pioneer member of the Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS), now known as the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS).

Work Highlights

• Deal book of notified transactions with total value close to S$800 billion, including every public takeover notified to the CCCS, and the first and only Provisional Infringement Decision of CCCS to be successfully overturned (Greif/GEP).
• Assisted on close to 90 per cent. of complex CCCS merger reviews requiring commitments, including the first foreign-to-foreign merger with commitments (Thomson/Reuters), and the first CCCS conditional merger clearance requiring local commitments (SEEK/JobStreet).
• Involved in the drafting of legislation, codes, policies and regulatory regimes, including the merger control framework for the Airport Competition Code, the Media Market Conduct Code, and economic aspects of competition law in the electricity and gas markets.