WongPartnership, Singapore’s fourth largest firm by headcount, is increasing its focus on the Middle East market by investing in its presence in Doha.
The firm is currently in expansion mode, building critical mass on the ground and broadening its practice base to construction and corporate advisory. It is currently appointing a new partner, and will hire more lawyers in the coming months to make the Doha office “fully operational” by January.
Although the firm has had a presence in Doha since 2007, managing partner Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara (pictured) said that it is now undertaking more expansionary measures. “We’ve had a licence to operate in Doha for about two years and we’re about to expand our reach in the next couple of months,” said Sandrasegara. “We’ve been running the office from Abu Dhabi but now we’re going to have a broader strategy and base in Doha.”
WongPartnership has been the only Singaporean firm in the Middle East since opening in Doha and Abu Dhabi in 2007, although Malaysian neighbour Zaid Ibrahim has an office in Dubai’s DIFC. The drive towards Doha follows the success of its operations in Abu Dhabi, having advised on key recent deals such as the US$4bn M&A deal between Abu Dhabi’s ATIC and Singapore’s CMS. “We feel that we’ve stabilised the Abu Dhabi operation and we’re quite happy with how things have turned out. We’re going to focus our energies on setting up in Doha and get it moving,” said Sandrasegara.
The firm’s expansion strategy has focused on markets with good governmental relations with Singapore. While most firms have begun their Middle East operations in Dubai, the firm instead chose Abu Dhabi, a move which Sandrasegara does not regret. “Most people were telling us to consider opening up in Dubai. We made trips to Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha and felt that Abu Dhabi was on the right track in terms of its development and its growth initiative,” said Sandrasegara.“We believe we absolutely did the right thing in opening in Abu Dhabi rather than Dubai and making it the central part of our Middle East strategy.”
Sandrasegara said that proximity to clients was also a significant factor in the Middle East strategy, and the outlook for closer collaboration between the two regions remains positive. “Middle East investors are not just looking at Singapore but Indonesia and Malaysia, and with oil prices back at stable levels you will have more investment activity from the Middle East. Clearly Middle East investors are looking at opportunities all over the world and Asia represents one part of that,” he said.
International firms in Qatar
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