Allen & Overy sets big goals

The office in Yangon was opened last November, bringing the number of offices in Asean to 6. 

This latest opening takes the firm’s office count to 12 in Asia-Pacific, underpinning the firm’s strategy of expanding the business in growth markets. It also augments Allen & Overy’s existing Asean offering which includes offices in Singapore, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Jakarta.

“Through this investment, we believe we can not only play a role in helping Myanmar with its legal framework, we can also help clients across our global network better understand the mechanics and nuances of what has been, up until recently, an unknown quantity from an international investment point of view.

“Having people on the ground, alongside the contacts and goodwill we have established over the past two years, has been critical in enabling us to advance both goals,” said Allen & Overy Asean group chairman Simon Makinson, who manages the Yangon office.

The company first made its existence felt in the country three years ago, before opening the office last year.

Makinson noted that the company has been extremely busy in the past two years with a “multi-faceted” approach to the market. 

It is advising across all active sectors. To date, Telenor Group is the biggest client. The telecom company from Norway won a successful bid for one of the two recently awarded telecommunications licences in the country’s first internationally recognised public procurement process. After the bid, Allen & Overy helped it with network deployment. 

“Besides telecoms, we have also been active in banking and finance, energy (including oil and gas), infrastructure, manufacturing and consumer goods. US OFAC and EU sanctions advice also feature prominently across all sectors in our portfolio of experience. While risk is still a key factor for corporations looking to invest in Myanmar, the business and legal framework for opportunity is improving day-by-day,” he said.

On market development, Allen & Overy is also working with developers and multilaterals in the power sector, including assisting with the development of a standardised power purchase agreement for all electricity sales. 

It is also a member of the UK-Myanmar Financial Services Task Force reviewing Myanmar’s banking regulations.

It also rolled out educational programmes for government and regulatory agencies, members of the local legal profession and law students to help build Myanmar’s foreign investment know-how. This has been developed in partnership with the Myanmar Attorney-General’s Office and the University of Oxford.

Makinson was tasked to oversee the Myanmar office as he has led the firm’s push into Myanmar from the very start when sanctions began to lift two years ago. 

There are two other senior lawyers and three business services staff on the ground, as well as a dedicated team of sector specialists made up of partners and lawyers from the firm’s Bangkok and Singapore offices. Certain projects bring in experts from further afield and, to date, have included teams from Tokyo, Sydney, Perth, New York and London (where the team includes a Myanmar national/UK-qualified lawyer.