Skift Take
This is a high-profile case that pits a powerful Thai family against a reputable global luxury hotel brand. It also spotlights the reality that this won’t be the last of owner-and-chain disputes, especially not when times are getting harder.
The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, which operates luxury brand The Peninsula Hotels, says it will “vigorously defend its rights” to manage The Peninsula Bangkok, following a legal win by the hotel’s Thai shareholder that paves the way for the management agreement to be terminated.
The 370-room riverside hotel is 50 percent-owned by the Phataraprasit family and 50 percent by The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels’ subsidiary in Bangkok.
The Thai shareholder went to court after it failed to end the agreement in the boardroom on January 26, as it was blocked by the Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels subsidiary, which has a voting majority in the board. But on September 10, the local Thonburi Civil Court ruled that the subsidiary should not have been allowed to vote on a resolution regarding the termination of the agreement.
In a statement issued on October 11, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels said it strongly objected to this verdict and had duly appealed to the Court of Appeal on October
