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

My legal team and I have recently been involved in several cases and transactions—one of the most significant involved developing hydropower plants in Sungai Maligan and Sungai Pasas, Sabah. We led the legal and contractual negotiation for both projects from July 2021 with all the parties involved. This has required in-depth research on energy-based legal statutes, rules, regulations and existing laws. We advised both on legal and risk perspectives towards the conclusion of commercial terms for the project value of RM 2.6 bn, which required in-house expertise to draft a full-blown energy-affiliated shareholders agreement from scratch. The legal function has further guided the company on the requirements under Bursa Malaysia Listing Requirements for legal construction. It has managed stakeholders such as the Chief Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Finance Sabah, the Economic Planning Unit Sabah and the Attorney General’s Office Sabah in terms of procuring necessary conditions precedent and preliminary requirements before the agreements could be entered in December 2021. In this context, we also liaised with regulators such as the Energy Commission to understand the legal requirements that had to be met by parties.

Another relevant project was the divestment and acquisition of assets, both shares and properties. In this, we teamed with the corporate finance, corporate planning and property teams to list all the assets and properties and to categorise them by their level of importance. We prepared official documents and presented them to the management team and the company’s board of directors, asking for a green light to proceed with the preparation of necessary legal documents such as the Share Sale Agreements and Purchase Agreements. This led to the successful (i) divestment of parcels of land in Pulau Pinang, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor amounting to RM150 m in 2021; (ii) the divestment of shares amounting to RM 25m by way of share swape and new share issuance. (iii) The acquisition of property and shares of a hospital for RM 20 m.

Furthermore, we have been involved in multiple corporate exercises: The reverse takeover and mandatory general offer exercise; the payment of special cash dividends, bonus warrants and rights issue; and the private placement exercise wherein the legal team materialised its expertise by advising the company in the legal application of the same and liaising with the DDWG in terms on necessary legal documents and any requirements under Bursa Securities.

The team had footed a remarkable benchmark in 2020 when it successfully acted as legal advisor and risk assessor for a foreign jurisdiction construction project for a PHP200 m steel deck parking construction project in the Philippines.

Additionally, the team has thoroughly and consistently advised the company for its RM 380m mega projects in constructing and building a hospital in Puncak Alam for UiTM. This ongoing project is entering its extended phase and requires high monitoring and compliance. Construction of medical and healthcare buildings requires extra care, involving multiple compliance and regulations.

On the real estate and development side, the team has concluded the RM 160m worth of land development of a 10-acre land in Tampoi, Johor Bahru, Malaysia, for a commercial development initiative entered by the company and another key player in the area. The team assisted back in 2019 with preparing all preliminary stage documents. The impact of Covid-19 has initially caused difficulty, but with everyone’s cooperation, the team managed to do a thorough risk assessment and accord it with legally sound recommendations.

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?

Under my leadership, the legal team in 2020 successfully saved RM 5m for the group by using in-house capability, capacity, experience and expertise. I aim to ensure the in-house counsel’s productivity and relevancy by encouraging and encouraging the team members to believe in themselves when delivering products.

I am committed to demonstrating that there are better ways for in-house legal counsel to position themselves as being a cost-saving platform while being seen as a catalyst for the company’s betterment.

Furthermore, thanks to the trust and mandate given by the management of DBhd, I have had the opportunity to develop a new portfolio named Corporate Compliance and have been given another department to be envisioned, the Dispute Resolution Department dealing with the company’s litigation matters. While the corporate compliance parameter includes the team’s planning, coordination, organisation and implementation of corporate compliance matters, including anti-corruption policy, anti-money laundering policy and other related issues throughout the company, the dispute resolution department has honed the team’s skills in managing dispute resolution-based matters such as litigation cases, arbitration cases and letter of demands from time to time.