Salans opens law office in Hong Kong

International law firm Salans continues to grow its business in Greater China by opening an office in Hong Kong. The firm has been in Shanghai since 2003 and in Beijing since last year, and has now received regulatory approval from the Hong Kong authorities, it said in a statement Friday. It will operate out of premises in Citibank Tower in the Central district of the city.

Despite its physical presence in China, Salans says the intention is that Hong Kong "will provide a gateway for foreign investment into mainland China and will focus on corporate, capital markets and institutional real estate transactions". Also, the office will "act as a hub for Salans' future growth in other parts of Asia".

The Hong Kong operation will be headed by Andrew Lui, who formerly led Pinsent Masons' corporate practice in mainland China. Lui specialises in commercial and corporate finance, both in Hong Kong and the PRC, and has a wide sector focus on investment banks, manufacturing, trading and logistics companies, according to the statement. He is fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin and English.

Recruitment of other partners and associates is apparently "well advanced". Lui says that the firm has "already recruited a strong team in Hong Kong, and will be announcing more appointments shortly." He adds that "this is an exciting time for Salans, and I look forward to growing the Hong Kong office with my Greater China colleagues in Beijing and Shanghai".

Salans describes itself as a full service international law firm built on a "pioneering spirit" with 750 lawyers globally operating from 21 offices. It started life as Salans Hertzfield & Heilbronn in Paris in 1978, and worked closely with clients in the former Soviet Union. It made its mark when it was one of the first foreign firms to open an office in Moscow in 1991, and then expanded to the Ukraine and Kazakhstan over the next three years. It also opened an office in London in 1992, which led to a merger with a UK firm specialising in banking, and merged with a New York operation at the end of the decade.

Nevertheless, its particular strength still lies in Russia -- and other former Soviet countries -- so it can be expected to help Russian financial companies keen to tap into Asian cash, either in the form of initial public offerings on Asian stock exchanges or through investments by Asian investors into Russian infrastructure projects or energy companies. 

"Particularly in the current environment our China operation is proving an ideal complement to our global network", Dariusz Oleszczuk, global managing partner at Salans, said in the statement.