Ashurst, Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy have all punched in strong provisional results for the year ending 30 April 2011. These have come off the back of aggressive, expansionist drives into the Asia-Pacific region by the international firms, which are now bearing robust returns.

The continued focus on the Asia-Pacific is clear – 12 out of 23 newly promoted Clifford Chance partners are in Asia. Clifford Chance’s move to seal a three-way merger with two Australian corporate boutiques – creating an instant 14-partner practice in Sydney and Perth – had caused waves in the region. Allen & Overy’s dual Australian office launch (Sydney, Perth) and its Jakarta office launch in the first half of 2010 had seen partner numbers double in the region over the past two years. Ashurst’s recent Hong Kong office launch and the growing percentage of its revenue (now at 40 percent) coming from outside of the U.K. is added testament to Asia’s rising influence. “We see that the much talked about shift from the West to the East is now a reality; one highlighted by our exceptionally strong performance in the Asia Pacific region,” Allen & Overy global managing partner Wim Dejonghe said. “We have been consistent in our pursuit of expansion opportunities and, as a result, we have ensured we are able to support our clients with an on the ground presence where they need us across today's evolving global markets."

Other managing partners hold the same view. “We have had a very good year in Asia and we are pleased that our significant investment here is bearing fruit. Our energy and projects business across the region has continued to perform strongly and our corporate practice has seen considerable growth, particularly in Hong Kong capital markets and cross-border M&A, where we are delighted to have been mandated on some very significant deals in the last 12-18 months,” Ashurst head of Asia, Geoffrey Green said.

Clifford Chance’s revenue this year amount to US$1.967 billion, up 2 percent on the previous financial year. Allen & Overy has seen a 7 percent spike in year-on-year revenue, with turnover amounting to US$1.809 billion. Although Ashurst’s revenue hit US$489.13 million, an improvement of 3.5 percent, its net profit results saw an 8 percent jump, netting US$172.7 million for the financial year.

Profit-per-equity partner also soared, with Clifford Chance partners taking home an extra 8 percent (US$1,622,795) from what they did in the year prior; Ashurst’s average profit per partner was up 5 percent(US$1,167,000) while Allen & Overy’s profit per partner held steady at US$1.8 million.

"This has been a year of good consolidation for us. We have continued to make investments across our business through the financial crisis, having opened four new offices in the last three years. During the same period, we have promoted internally or laterally hired 70 new partners. 60 percent of those partners are based outside of the UK and our non-UK business is now 40 percent of the firm,” Simon Bromwich, managing partner of Ashurst said.

According to Bromwich, Ashurst’s Asian revenue has doubled from the previous year, with activity in the last quarter significantly boosting the figures. “This is a great achievement for a firm that has grown its business organically. We are particularly pleased with our significant growth in Asia, where revenues grew by 50 percent last year,” he said. Ashurst has also recently added its dispute resolution capability in Hong Kong.

Some significant deals that Clifford Chance has worked on in the past financial year includes, advising on the first dual Hong Kong and London admission - Glencore International's US$10 billion IPO; advising the underwriters on Prada's high-profile US$2 billion IPO in Hong Kong; advising on the world's largest audience measurement company and the largest ever Private Equity backed IPO in the U.S. - Nielsen Holdings BV’s IPO and China Investment Corp’s pre-IPO cornerstone equity investment in Brazil’s largest independent investment bank, Banco BTG. “Our practices in Asia and the Middle East have again shown particularly impressive results and we have robust strategies in place to continue to build those businesses in line with what is very clear client demand for support in these regions,” Clifford Chance  managing partner David Childs said. The firm had also launched new offices in Qatar and Istanbul this year to strengthen its Middle East offering.

According to Allen & Overy, the firm has taken a stance to reach for a long term investment strategy this past year to establish future streams of earnings.  "This strategy has served us extremely well. Thomas Brown, Managing Partner of the Asia Pacific region said. The firm’s strategy to focus on key markets such as China, India, Australia, Indonesia and Singapore is client driven, Brown said.ALB