Had he been back in Wellington, New Zealand’s trade minister Tim Groser would have still been a few hours away from having to get up to a wet, chilly morning. As it was, he was eight time zones away in Abu Dhabi enjoying a dry, balmy evening. The occasion? The official opening of Kensington Swan’s pioneering new Middle-East office.
The fact that it was the minister himself wielding the ribbon-cutting scissors perhaps gives credence to the claims of Kensington Swan’s chairman, Clayton Kimpton, that the new office was important “not just for Kensington Swan but for the New Zealand professional services sector as a whole”.
“We believe having an office in Abu Dhabi will lead to a strengthening of economic and commercial ties between our two countries by promoting trade and investment cooperation,” he said. “Undoubtedly the opportunities a firm like Kensington Swan can open up will lead to increased trade opportunities between the two countries.”
Non-oil trade flows between New Zealand and the UAE are currently worth NZ$400m, said Kimpton, but given the country’s ambitious plans for growth many future opportunities existed. The UAE is New Zealand’s fifth largest trading partner.
Kickstarting the office will be a team of five lawyers cherry-picked from a forest of eager hands that went up when the firm invited applications for a transfer. New UAE managing partner Quentin Lowcay (outsourcing, procurement, technology) will oversee senior consultant Richard Cathie (construction, large projects), associate Julian de Lange, and solicitors Mark Brown and Karen Sanderson.
As the choice of Abu Dhabi – the seat of the UAE national government – over the more commonly selected Dubai suggests, the team is targeting government work as a significant source of revenue, along with private clients and outbound investment into Australasia.
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