In one of the Gulf’s most high-profile lateral moves this year, Singapore-based firm WongPartnership has secured Clyde & Co Doha-basd partner Andrew Watson. Watson will join WongPartnership as co-head of its Middle East practice and will sit within the firm’s IP and media & technology practice. Watson will share the Middle East MP role with Paul Sandosham who has been at the helm of WongPartnership in the Gulf since it launched in Qatar in 2007.
Watson, who has also spent time with Denton Wilde Sapte in Muscat, London and Brussels (where he was managing partner), also boasts strong credentials in the energy, infrastructure, trade and banking & finance sectors. In these sectors Watson’s deal list includes acting for a major telco on its interconnection and transmission agreement with Qtel and advising the Omani government on the country’s biggest IPO to date: Omantel’s US$800m offering.
According to the firm’s senior partner Alvin Yeo, Watson’s appointment is part of strategy aimed at expanding the firm’s Gulf offering “to beyond construction and corporate advisory areas”.
Related stories:
- WongPartnership ramps up in the Middle East (Oct 2009)
- WongPartnership goes green (Feb 2010)
- More Gulf insurance M&As on the way: Clyde & Co and Trowers (Feb 2010)