M&A and ECM lawyers are expecting a salary increase following the April/May pay review and bonus season, however despite a small handful of early salary survey results, among the profession the quantity of any pay rises are still unknown, according to Nicola Wakefield Evans, an M&A and ECM partner with Mallesons in Hong Kong. “We are certainly expecting a salary increase, but it is not known what the quantity will be,” she said.

Despite the uncertainty, there are a few reasons for Wakefield Evans and her team, which works in offices in Hong Kong and also Sydney, to be at least cautiously optimistic. “We’ve seen lots of movement among law firms and the M&A market is very buoyant. We’ve been incredibly busy for 15-18 months; Hong Kong just had the largest number of IPOs listed ever in 2010. This, coupled with increasing numbers of international firms coming into the Hong Kong market, means the assessment is that [these factors] will put pressure on both salary and bonuses,” said Wakefield Evans. She also mentioned that there has been movement at every level, from junior and mid-level associates to partners and in particular, well known and well respected Hong Kong qualified partners have been enticed into joining the major US firms which have become Hong Kong practices. “[These firms] need to have well recognised Hong Kong practitioners,” added Wakefield Evans.

There is more than one driver for the flurry of M&A and joint venture activity as well as general ECM and private equity work, according to Wakefield Evans.  Apart from the number of international firms deciding to localise, and build up practices with stronger links to China, many MNCs from Europe and The US are seeking access to liquidity. “A lot of companies are looking for equity and investment banks are putting a lot of effort into rebuilding their practices in China and Hong Kong. Barclays is a case in point, it is building ECM capability, also Nomura…even Macquarie Bank is doing really well on the ECM side. There is a flow on effect of more deals and more work for law firms,”

Wakefield Evans does not anticipate workflow will slow down over the coming months, and mentioned that her practice has been so busy they have seconded one partner, one senior associate and at least three lawyers from Australia to assist with the workload. “I think it will continue on the ECM and M&A side, we see a lot of outbound work as Chinese companies are still looking at Australian companies for example, and Australian companies are looking at Asia. Telstra has also announced the possibility of increased acquisitions in China and it has already made substantial acquisitions in the area. There are also interesting things happening in the car and small goods markets, and a convergence of traditional western brands with modern Chinese ones. I think we will see increased investment in a number of interesting joint ventures,” concluded Wakefield Evans.