Team size: Nine

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

In May 2022, Dusit legal team assisted Dusit Food — a subsidiary of Dusit Thani Public — in the acquisition of 55% shares in Port Royal, a company that runs a bakery factory in Thailand, and Bonjour Bakery Asia, with more than 50 bakery retail stores across Thailand and one in China. This strategic acquisition aimed at developing new streams of recurring revenue in the bakery business. The strategic acquisition signs the latest significant development in the evolution of Dusit International’s food business, following its previous investment in NRF, a publicly listed company in Thailand.

In August 2022, Dusit Legal Team assisted Dusit International in striking a deal with the retail arm of state-owned oil and gas group PTT, gaining access to an extensive sales network for its food business. In this deal, Dusit Thani Public Company Limited sold its 25% share capital in Dusit Foods, a manufacturing and catering subsidiary of Dusit Thani Public Company Limited, to PTT Oil and Retail Business (PTTOR), Thailand’s top gasoline station operator, who spent approximately 299.6 million baht (USD$8.29 m) to acquire a 25% share capital in Dusit Foods. The deal represents an alliance that will leverage PTTOR’s robust retail platform and retail expertise with Dusit’s knowledge in the food business to meet the needs of multiple lifestyle segments.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners?

I always advise my team members to break down silos: approach co-workers of other divisions and build credibility and trust to help others achieve the objectives. I always tell the team that we should not think we are just lawyers, but we are part of the team, and we should keep in mind that we all need to work towards our team’s and organisation’s goals. Acting with accountability or taking ownership would help the teams achieve their goals. To this end, I have always been empowering team members. I support their decision-making with sound justifications and recognise when the team members are doing good. I stand by them when they make mistakes. I always tell them that making a mistake is not the end of the world, as we can work something out together to fix it. A mistake teaches us not to repeat it.

What are some of the main legislative or regulatory changes that have impacted you?

Thailand has enacted the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), effective in June 2022. Data privacy issues can be a major risk within the hospitality industry. Most businesses in the hospitality industry collect customer data such as personal preferences, health, spending patterns and financial information to provide customised services better and increase customer satisfaction. As we can see that although the operators have been doing their best to safeguard customers’ data, significant data breach incidents exposing customers’ personal information have occurred. The legal team has been playing a vital role in doing all we can to help DPO and organisation to lower the risk of data incidents or manage such crises. Gaps analysis has been conducted to identify risk areas and actions to be taken to fill the gaps, comply with the new PDPA and reduce risks associated with customer data. Many tasks need to be done and implemented, but we must continue to comply with the law and regulations and safeguard our customers’ data.