Thaphanut Vimolkej

Thaphanut is an associate in the energy and infrastructure team in the Bangkok office.

He specializes in energy and infrastructure projects, renewable resources, mergers and acquisitions, and commercial transactions. Thaphanut provides expert advice to both private and Stock Exchange of Thailand-listed clients on a range of matters, including corporate, regulatory, permitting, capital markets, and transaction tax considerations.

His expertise is instrumental in project development, financing, mergers and acquisitions, foreign direct investment, and general commercial transactions. These transactions span various sectors such as energy, infrastructure, utility assets, real estate, manufacturing, and consumer credit businesses in Thailand.

Energy and Infrastructure-Related Transactions:

• Acted as local counsel to SDIC Mining on the acquisition of a controlling interest in a large potash mine in northern Thailand in Udon Thani Province, with the mining rights granted to Asia Pacific Potash Corporation (“APPC”), a subsidiary of Italian-Thai Development Public Company Limited (“ITD”). The stake sale is being run through a competitive bidding managed by APPC.
• Represented both Thai and foreign developers and sponsors on the acquisition, development, installation and financing of, and investments and joint venture arrangements in, off-grid private solar rooftop projects installed on industrial, storage and commercial buildings throughout Thailand. These arrangements include the creation of standardized private offtake agreements, permitting plans and leasehold arrangements.
• Represented Constant Energy Management Services Limited, a private renewable energy developer with assets in emerging markets, on its US-style leveraged financing and management buy-out of equity interests in operating ground-mount solar photovoltaic projects in Thailand totalling 17.5 MW, as well as a team of experienced managers and operators and a pipeline of additional projects under development, from the Sonnedix Group, a European private solar power developer.
• Represented a leading Japanese trading company on its potential acquisition of equity interest in a Thai Stock Exchange-listed and major natural resources company, and on further natural resources project development in Thailand.
• Represented Spectrum Power Company Limited, an investment vehicle for foreign and Thai private equity investors, in joint venture arrangements with B. Grimm Solar Power Rooftop Company Limited to develop portfolios of off-grid private-to-private rooftop solar PV projects in Thailand.
• Represented SET-listed and the country’s first independent power producer, Electricity Generating Public Co., Ltd. (EGCO), on the KRW 847.7 billion (about US$800 million) cross-border acquisition of a 49 percent equity interest in the 1.8 GW Paju LNG-Fired Power Facility in Paju City, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, from SK E&S Co., Ltd. SK E&S is the energy investment arm of SK Holdings Co., Ltd., which is the Korea Stock Exchange-listed holding company of SK Group, one of the largest conglomerates (chaebol) in Korea.
• Represented BPIN Investment Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Thai Stock Exchange-listed and the country’s largest coal mining and natural resources company, Banpu pcl., on its 44.84 percent equity investment in New Resources Technology Pte. Ltd. (NRT) worth SG$45.10 million (about US$33.20 million). NRT is a Singapore holding company that specializes in researching, designing, manufacturing and integrating lithium-ion batteries for the automotive industry and energy storage systems and owns an operating battery-manufacturing factory in China with a capacity of 80 MWh and future expansion plans for ASEAN, China, Japan, India and Europe.

• Represented Banpu Infinergy Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Banpu pcl. which provides one-stop service on total solar energy solutions using advanced technology, on its approximately US$55.7 million investment in convertible preference shares in the Sunseap Group, the largest clean-energy solutions provider of roof-top solar projects in Singapore with a pipeline of solar ground-mount and roof-top projects and energy storage initiatives underway in Australia, Cambodia, India, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam to reach 300 MW of overall operating capacity.
• Represented Thai Stock Exchange-listed Energy Absolute plc in its approximately US$21.6 million capital market investment in 35.19 percent equity interest in Amita Technologies Inc., a leading Taiwan manufacturer of lithium-ion polymer batteries listed on the Emerging Stock Market of the Taipei Stock Exchange.
• Represented a syndicated lending group consisting of the Asian Development Bank and a major Thai commercial bank on the approximately US$160 million project financing of a 90 MW contracted capacity wind farm power generating facility in northeast Thailand. The ADB commitment is for approximately US$55 million in a local currency loan and for up to US$30 million from the ADB-administered Clean Technology Fund
• Advised Constant Energy, a major rooftop solar power project developer and Independent Power Producer in Asia Pacific, on its refinancing with one of the Thailand’s largest commercial banks, KASIKORNBANK, for its portfolio of solar rooftop projects with the installed capacity of approximately 13.7 MW held by two project companies in Thailand.

M&A, Joint Venture and Corporate Transactions:

• Represented Constant Energy in relation to an equity investment by Virya Energy, the renewable energy arm of Belgium-based Eurowatt.
• Represented Electricity Generating Public Co., Ltd. on its re-entry into the Indonesian infrastructure and utility market by way of a strategic investment in newly issued shares worth US$194 million and representing a 30 percent ownership interest in PT Chandra Daya Investasi (CDI), which is a subsidiary of PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk (JK: TPIA), Indonesia’s leading chemical company engaging in infrastructure solutions and operating an integrated petrochemical plant.
• Represented Raimon Land Public Company Limited (SET: RML) on its joint venture arrangement with MEA Commercial Holdings Pte. Ltd. (MEA), a Southeast Asia-based investment arm of Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd., one of the largest real-estate developers in Japan. The joint venture is to develop RML’s Grade-A office building in downtown Bangkok: One City Centre. The One City Centre Project is the first-ever office building project of RML and the first real-estate investment portfolio in Thailand of MEA.
• Represented Raimon Land Public Company Limited, a renowned Thai stock exchange-listed real estate developer (SET: RML), on its land acquisitions and joint venture arrangements with Tokyo Tatemono Group (through Tokyo Tatemono Asia Pte. Ltd.). The joint venture is to develop RML’s high-end residential condominium projects in Bangkok: The Estelle (Sukhumvit 26) and Tait 12 (Sathorn 12).
• Represented a major Thai energy firm for the financing of 25 MW solar photovoltaic rooftop projects in Thailand.
• Represented real estate investor on their preference share investment in, and senior loan financing to, subsidiaries of Thai Stock Exchange-listed PACE Development Corporation plc. The proceeds of this transaction, totalling approximately THB 8.4 billion, were applied towards construction and financing costs to complete the iconic MahaNakhon mixed-use condominium, hotel and retail skyscraper project in downtown Bangkok, and subsequent representation on the investor’s deadlock resolution and eventual divestment from the project.
• Represented London Stock Exchange-listed, Mondi AG, on its buy-out from Thai partners in a company operating a plastics packaging manufacturing facility in central Thailand in 2017, and subsequent representation on its foreign-funded business expansion in the suburb of Bangkok.
• Represented a US-based packaging company, specialized in the manufacturing and packaging of products for food, beverage, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries worldwide, on its potential divestment of a package manufacturing plant and related business and assets in Suzhou Province, China.
• Represented a real estate investor on their acquisition of CAS Capital (Thailand) Limited and its related asset management companies which hold and manage distressed and real estate assets in Thailand. This transaction was the first investment of the investor in the country.

• Notarial Services Attorney, Lawyers Council of Thailand
• Extraordinary Member, Thai Bar Association
• Lawyer’s License, Lawyers Council of Thailand