Wilailuk Okanurak

Wilailuk is renown in the Thai legal industry. She is a highly skilled lawyer who advises local and international clients on strategically significant commercial deals, with a focus on M&A (public and private) and projects (for sponsors and banks), as well as on banking and capital markets (equity and debt) deals.

She supports Thai corporates in their outbound investments, including transactions in Brazil, China, Germany, Russia, U.S, UK and beyond. Her experience spans across many sectors, including telecommunications, energy (including those arising from the energy transition), infrastructure, automotive, chemicals, utilities, food & beverages, industrials, transportation, IT, retail, real estate & hospitality, healthcare, insurance and banks & other financial institutions.

Wilailuk has been highly ranked on Chambers Asia Pacific for over 16 years.

Work highlights

Over the years, Wilailuk has led in numerous ‘first-ever’ and high-profile projects and transactions. Her key highlights include:

• True Corporation Public Company Limited (True) on its amalgamation with Total Access Communication Public Company Limited (dtac) to create a new telecom-tech company (which maintains its name as True) whose shares are listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand with the total asset value of approximately US$22.6bn. This is the largest telco merger in Southeast Asia.
• Charoen Pokphand Group on its US$10.6bn acquisition of Tesco’s businesses in Thailand and Malaysia. This is the largest corporate acquisition in Thailand’s history.
• Siam Makro Public Company Limited on its group restructuring by way of entire business transfer.
• Thai Oil Public Company Limited in the US$4bn expansion and upgrade of their refinery and petrochemical facility at Sriracha in Chonburi Province. This refinery was the first major oil refinery and the largest and most sophisticated in Thailand. It has about 21% of the country's overall refining capacity and is capable in fulfilling 35% of the domestic petroleum demand.
• The consortium of Charoen Pokphand Holding Co. Ltd. and Partners in the bidding and all contracts for the development, construction, operation, financing and maintenance of the US$7.5 billion High Speed Rail Linking Three Airports Project by the State Railway Authority of Thailand. This is the largest project to be developed as part of Thailand's Eastern Economical Corridor of proposed infrastructure and other development projects.
• The Siam Commercial Bank Public Company Limited on its US$57m joint venture with Julius Baer Group Limited to provide a new platform bridging onshore and offshore investment opportunities for Thai clients residing in Asia. This is the first incorporated joint venture between a Thai bank and an international private bank focusing on wealth management.
• Standard Chartered Bank (Thai) Public Company Limited on the sale of its retail banking business in Thailand to TISCO Bank Public Company Limited and All-Ways Company Limited. The transaction is the first significant sale of a retail banking business in Thailand with a net asset value of approximately THB 5.5 billion.
• J.P. Morgan Securities plc, Merrill Lynch (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Phatra Securities Public Company Limited, Finansa Securities Limited and Krung Thai Bank Public Company Limited on the THB 44.7bn initial public offering of 4,470,000,000 investment units by Thailand Future Fund (TFF). TFF's IPO is the largest public offering in Thailand in 2018.
• True Telecommunications Growth Infrastructure Fund (TTGIF) to obtain up to THB 13.1bn financing from a group of syndicated lenders for the acquisition of additional telecommunication infrastructure assets and related equipment. TTGIF is the first telecommunication infrastructure fund in Thailand.

Wilailuk holds an LL.B from Chulalongkorn University, an LL.M from The American University and a certification from Oxford Institute of International and Comparative Law.

She speaks fluent Thai and English.