Singapore-based law firm Colin Ng & Partners (CNP) and global professional services provider Tricor Singapore Pte Ltd will form a strategic joint venture, effective 1 September 2008, the companies said in a press release Friday. The new entity, to be known as CNP Corporate Services Pte. Ltd will boast around 140 personnel, over one-third of which are lawyers qualified to practise in various jurisdictions throughout Asia.

 

The new entity will offer a wide range of corporate secretarial services ranging from accounting and China entry to offshore structuring and consulting. The new entity will continue to offer legal services to new and existing clients through the CNP arm of the business.

 

It is not the first time that Asian law firms have found it necessary to expand the scope of their activities in this way. In 2001, Singapore firm Drew & Napier established DrewCorp Services to provide dedicated corporate secretarial services to its clients. More recently, Korean firm Shin & Kim established several consulting businesses designed to offer their clients unprecedented access to the lucrative Chinese market and other emerging markets in the region. With governments in rapidly developing Asian countries showing more and more interest in attracting FDI to their shores, such moves are likely to continue in the future as law firms of all shapes and sizes realise the commercial utility of expanding their business acumen.