VIDEO: Clifford Chance's Lee Taylor

"We've acted for many clients over the last few years on sell-side mandates that haven't successfully closed where they've flip-flopped between a trade sale and an IPO," Taylor says. "It's hugely frustrating and hopefully things will change in the run up to the 2014 presidential election when I suspect people will start to reassess valuations."

Of the foreign investors looking for deals in the country, the Japanese are perhaps the most conspicuous. Suntory recently teamed up with GarudaFood - pushing The Carlyle Group out of the way in the process - but Taylor says corporate interest stretches well beyond the consumer sector and into natural resources.

"Many of our trading hours clients are looking at deals in the resources sector," he says. "That's a function of the Japanese yen being so strong, low borrowing costs, slow domestic growth, and the need to find accelerated growth in other parts of the world - and Indonesia is clearly on the map for that."

However, the country is difficult to navigate from a regulatory perspective. Many tranches of legislation are still relatively young and there are often suggestions that the government might revise its approach.

"The law is not black and white in Indonesia," Taylor says. "It's very rare that you can get a legal opinion on anything relating to Indonesian regulations. It's important, therefore, that advisors can tell you this is a risk but we don't see it as a substantial risk."

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• Southeast Asia
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