On 9 March 2020, Tesco Plc ("Tesco")
announced the sale of its operations in Thailand and Malaysia to
four entities under Charoen Pokphand Group, for US$10.6 billion.
The announcement came three months after Tesco first announced a
strategic review of its Asian operations. Central Group and TCC
Group were reportedly shortlisted for the deal.
When approached in December 2019, the anti-monopoly Trade
Competition Commission ("TCC") warned
that the deal, which was expected to yield more than US$10 billion
and may result in the successful bidder dominating half of the
market, will be subject to TCC's prior approval.
In this article, we analyse how the merger control
regime in Thailand, currently enshrined in the relatively new Trade
Competition Act 2017 ("Act"), impacts
the Thai aspect of the deal. Merger control is no stranger to the
anti-competition landscape in Thailand. It evolved from what was
originally Section 26 of the predecessor of the Act, i.e.,
