Team size: 75

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

The Grab legal team has spearheaded enormous corporate activity for the company since the beginning of 2021. Some of the most significant include the Term Loan B in 2021 for a total of US$2bn. The same year, we supported the acquisition of HungryGoWhere in Singapore. Another acquisition worth mentioning concerns the controlling interest in OVO in October 2021 — one of Indonesia’s largest digital payments operators. My legal team and I have been pivotal in completing the US$40bn SPAC merger and Nasdaq public listing in December 2021. The same month, we acquired Jaya Grocer, Malaysia’s largest mass premium supermarket chain. Between 2021 and 2022, we acquired 33% interest in Bank Fama in Indonesia. This year we acquired a move It ride-hailing app in the Philippines and established a US$ 350m Grab endowment fund.

In 2022 we have also been involved in an ongoing Malaysia High Court case with Malaysia Competition Commission regarding dominant positions; and a defence of class action lawsuit brought in NY Southern District.

Grab is driven by its mission to foster economic empowerment across Southeast Asia, and our work is underpinned by our core values: heart, humility, hunger and honour. It is essential that the people we hire — internal team members or external counsel — are aligned on what matters to us.

As the head of Grab’s growing legal department, the characteristics that I believe will help our team succeed and continue to be viewed as an important stakeholder as we continue to grow are an ownership mindset, adaptability, and sound judgment around prioritisation, which often means identifying what tasks are most aligned with our mission and values. The same is true for any in-house team.