Ravi Singhania opened the ILN
Business Session on Thursday, February 15, 2007 by welcoming all of the members
to the Asia Pacific Regional Meeting.
Alan Griffiths also extended a special thank you to our hosts, Singhania
& Partners.
Alan then introduced the ILN?s
newest members, AJU International Law Group in Seoul, South Korea and Hale Lane
Peek Dennison and Howard in Nevada, and those attending their first ILN meeting. He invited Mr. Tim Lukas to give a
short presentation on his firm to the assembled delegates.
Tim told the assembled
delegates that it is a pleasure for his firm to join the ILN. He noted that gaming and hospitality
are key areas of industry in Nevada, and that with the advent of publicly
traded companies coming into the gaming markets, projects have skyrocketed from
properties of $10 or $20 million to properties such as the city center by MGM
of $15 billion. Tim said that the
other thing that makes Nevada unique is its advantageous tax treaties for many
different entities, and he likened it to being the Delaware of the West. He went on to say that there is also
mining work in Nevada, which has slowed because of the growth of environmental
restrictions, although there is still growth in energy mining, specifically geo
thermo and alternative energy projects.
Tim advised the group that he is on the litigation side, with Bob being
a transactional lawyer and that their firm of fifty attorneys is evenly matched
between litigation and transaction.
He summed up by saying that he hopes everyone comes to visit
Nevada.
After thanking Tim for his
presentation, Alan invited Mr. Alex Park to give a short presentation on his
firm to the assembled delegates.
Alex expressed his gratitude
to Singhania & Partners for hosting the Asia Pacific Meeting and gave a
brief introduction to his firm.
AJU International is a full service law firm, providing domestic and
foreign clients with innovative legal solutions since 1994. Their partnership includes former
judges, prosecutors, and in house counsels and the firm focuses on a wide range
of practice areas, including mergers & acquisitions, foreign investments,
transactions, antitrust law, labor & employment, insolvency & bankruptcy,
nonperforming laws, international trade, civil litigation, criminal complaints,
and intellectual property. The
firm understands that each client is unique, and so they work together as teams
to explore non-conventional legal solutions. Alex noted that the firm had recently been selected as the
general legal counsel for the municipal government in Korea, and that they are
delighted to join the ILN. He
summarized by saying that many Korean corporations are looking for opportunities
to invest in foreign countries, so by enhancing the cooperation between their
firm and other members of the ILN, they can provide this service to their
domestic clients.
After Alan thanked Tim and Bob,
he invited Ms. Barbara Migallos to update the members on some recent changes
that have happened with the member firm in the Philippines.
Barbara expressed her pleasure
at being in Delhi and seeing many familiar faces. She said that she and Lorna had recently made an exciting
change by dissolving their old law office and creating two smaller, but just as
competent, firms. Barbara?s firm
is called Migallos & Luna Law Offices, and with eight lawyers they have
chosen to focus on their core competencies, which include corporate and
commercial law, commercial litigation, and intellectual property. In terms of corporate and commercial
law, the firm has some of the major companies in the Philippines as their
clients, such as San Miguel, the largest food and beverage conglomerate. She also noted that the firm does a lot
of mining work, because of recent law changes in the Philippines, and they
count the biggest mining company in the Philippines among their clients. Barbara closed by saying that the firm
is committed to excellence, to continue in the tradition of their previous
firm.
After thanking Barbara for her
comments on her new firm, Alan invited Ms. Lorna Patajo-Kapunan to give her
thoughts.
Lorna advised everyone to not
feel uncomfortable about the dissolution of the firm, because she and Barbara
are happy with the two strong firms.
The name of Lorna?s firm is Kapunan Lotilla Flores Garcia & Castillo
Law Offices, and they are a full service law firm. The firm was formed from five of the seven partners and
eight of the eleven associates of Roco Kapunan Migallos & Luna Law
Offices. The firm covers corporate
and commercial law, litigation, administrative law, mining, banking, tax,
trusts, estate planning, intellectual property, labor and telecommunications. Their clients include many large
national and international companies, including several recent corporate and
individual clients. The firm
groups their clients by industry and as a result, focuses on a wide range of
industries. Since their formation,
they have successfully participated in five ILN referrals. Similarly to Barbara?s firm, Lorna?s
firm is also committed to excellence of service.
Alan began the Administration
update with an overview of the Network.
He listed the Board of Directors, which include fourteen Board Members
and himself and Lindsay as full time executives. The Board is very diverse and instrumental in guiding the
activities of the Administration.
He then went on to describe some of the Administration?s
activities. He noted that he and
Lindsay work full time for the ILN and are happy to assist in the business of
the Network twenty four hours a day, seven days a week if necessary.
Alan next showed a slide of
the new firms that have joined the Network over the past eighteen months,
noting that the focus has been in Europe over the past three years. During this period, fourteen new
members have been brought in, and two of the new members are present at the
Asia Pacific conference. He said
that the new focus for recruitment is the Americas, where the ILN does have
tremendous coverage, but would like to fill in some of the open jurisdictions. With only two members in the
Administration and a limited budget, it is necessary to prioritize with regard
to recruiting. He also noted that
with regard to the Asia Pacific group, Board member, Simon Ekins, had visited
three firms in Vietnam and one firm is planning to send in their application
for membership.
Push-Down Visits
Although resources are
limited, the ILN Administration has discovered over the years that visiting
firms to push down the Network is a fundamental activity in ensuring that each
firm gets the most out of their ILN membership. Over the past two months, the Administration has visited
over ten firms, and is planning additional visits to be conducted on a
continual basis.
2006 – January
to June Referral Activity and Analysis:
Alan moved on to discuss the most recent full
report, which is the January to June 2006 referral activity and analysis. He noted that the most recent period,
July to December of 2006 had been completed and a draft report was made
available by handout during the business session, adding the caveat that it is
incomplete, with only fifty percent of firms reporting their data. He asked the assembled members to look
at the report and advise him of any additional referrals, either incoming or
outgoing. A more complete analysis
will be available at the Annual Meeting in New York.
For the benefit of the new members, Alan noted
that the report is generally understood to underestimate the number of total
referrals, due to reporting difficulties.
It is estimated that the referrals are underreported by 100%, and Alan
also indicated that the report only reflects new referrals, and not ongoing
referrals or referrals that have turned into firm clients. He further stated that the full
referral report includes referrals received.
For July 2005-December 2005, the estimated value
was $1.5 million and for January 2006 – June 2006, the estimated value
was $2.6 million, a substantial increase when combined with the total number of
referrals. Alan reiterated that
the numbers of referrals are underreported, even by firms with good internal
tracking procedures. With regard
to new referrals, the numbers have increased 20% since the last period.
When looking at the regional activity analysis,
it is clear again that interregional referrals are the highest percentage. They account for over 60% of total
referrals in Europe, more than 50% in North America, and almost 50% in
Asia. This reflects the importance
of regional recruitment and participation in regional meetings. The table also identifies key areas for
recruitment needs, specifically Central and South America, and Africa. Because these areas have weaker
economies, it makes it difficult to identify good law firms that don?t already
have existing relationships or that can finance the membership in the
Network. Alan noted for the new
members that although the Network may not have formal relationships with firms
in certain jurisdictions, there are often informal ones, or ones through other
member firms that can be leveraged on their behalf. The ILN Administration will often poll the member firms to
identify a contact in a jurisdiction that is of interest to a member firm if
the need arises.
Further analysis showed that 50% of the referrals
fall into the $5,000 - $25,000 range, 2% fall between $25,000 and $50,000, 4%
fall between $50,000 and $100,000, and 2% is in excess of $100,000. The types of matters that are referred
can often apply to more than one category, but the top referrals are made
within corporate (40%), litigation (15%), and tax (10%). Alan noted that the Administration
would like to eventually correlate these referrals with the activities of the
specialty groups to determine how best to increase these numbers.
With regard to the specialty groups, Alan noted
that the groups are in various stages of development, with ongoing goals, which
are regularly reassessed. He said
that the most important aspect of the specialty groups is the additional layer
of relationships that they create.
There are currently eleven specialty groups, which can be expanded, but
Alan reminded the assembled delegates that the groups must be driven by the
chairs of the group itself.
He touched on the activities of the Medical
Device Group, who have just finished a virtual roundtable on the topic of
Electronic Discovery and Spoliation.
Steve Rathke of Lommen Abdo in Minneapolis took the lead to develop a
series of questions, which he and seven other participants answered. The resulting document is now available
on the ILN website, and was circulated to the members of the specialty group,
as well as the marketing group. In
addition, the Administration distributed it at the Global Counsel Forum in
September, for which the ILN was a media partner. Alan noted that the timeliness of the piece has equaled a
positive response from its distribution, and he suggested that other groups can
put together similar documents and leverage the experience of the Medical
Device Group.
The International Tax Group is focusing more on
the technology side. Alan showed
an example of a teleconference and web broadcast that the group participated
in. He went through the mechanics
of participation, saying that the Administration would provide a web address
that the participants go to. They
can then either log in with a user ID and password, or log in as a guest. The view they see is pre-determined by
the group, based on the topic, and the participants are provided with a
telephone number to call. The
teleconference is then combined with the web broadcast, with only a slight
delay in any video processing taking place. The whole meeting can then be recorded and saved for future
purposes on their servers. The
group used this for the first time in Geneva, when they broadcasted their
breakout session over the Internet and were joined by other tax professionals
within the ILN.
Alan said that while useful for the specialty
groups, the Administration would also be able to use the systems to allow firms
to present webinars to their clients.
The Administration is also currently working with some of the member
firms to develop a series of client and attorney webinars that would be of
interest to clients around the globe, including India and their outsourcing
capabilities, doing business in China, and investment opportunities in eastern
and central Europe. The first of
these will be held by Michael Slan?s firm, Fogler Rubinoff, in conjunction with
Ravi Singhania from India. While
it is possible for clients to access the webinars remotely from their own
offices, Michael?s firm is planning to host a breakfast in conjunction with the
presentation instead. They will
invite clients to attend the breakfast, a member of their firm will speak a
little about outsourcing, and then the whole group will link in to Ravi?s live
web broadcast, allowing the group to ask questions and interact with him. Following this pilot program,
individual webinar program capabilities will be made available to all ILN
members on a firm by firm basis.
Tim asked if the webinars would be recorded and
uploaded to the website so that other member firms could then access them, and
allow their clients to access them.
Alan said that the capability is there, and it is something that the
Administration is looking into further.
ILN Future Programs
& Technology:
To further discuss the topic
of technology, Alan focused again on the ILN website to make the delegates
aware of what is offered there. On
the home page, visitors can download the most updated contact list and the ILN
brochure. The news items are also
kept up to date, and along with being shown on the home page, are attributed to
their individual authors and firms. Events are also listed on the home page, from ILN events to
those events produced by the ILN?s media partners. With regard to viewership of the ILN?s website, it is up to
about 45,000 individual visits per month.
Alan also reiterated the
benefits offered by publishing the International Legal News. He said that the Administration can
identify who is reading various articles and specifically highlighted an
article by Gadens Lawyers, which was read by 262 of 1,000 general counsel and
senior executives. This newsletter
continues to reside on the ILN website making it searchable and allowing
articles to be read over a long period of time. Even articles that were published three or four years ago
are still being read today, sometimes 200-300 times a month, depending on how
topical it is. Alan again
requested that firms supply the Administration with a list of their clients to
be added to the email database for this newsletter, and noted that he could
personalize it to show that their firm had recommended it. In addition to the International Legal
News, the ILN also publishes the Bullet?iln,? its
internal newsletter.
Alan
then invited Lindsay Griffiths to give her update on the ILN?s marketing
activities.
Lindsay began with an update on the Strategic
Differentiation project. She noted
that she had completed phases one and two, and is currently working on phase
three, which has been split into two parts. Phase 3a is dedicated to identifying the ILN?s strategic
message. She then went on to say
that the next part of phase three will be to define how various marketing tools
will be used to get this message across and writing the marketing plan. Following phase three is phase four,
which will ensure that the ILN?s message is true within the entire
organization.
Lindsay then went on to discuss the ILN?s media
partnerships. These media
partnerships offer a number of key benefits: the ability to distribute ILN and
member firm materials at various events, have the logo and short write up in
conference brochures, websites and all advertisements, and offer discounts to
ILN members planning to attend, and for ALM Events, to their clients who are
planning to attend. In addition,
these relationships will enable the ILN to collaborate with the organizations
to provide speaking opportunities for members. The ILN does not pay a sponsorship fee in return, but
instead affords the organizations with publicity among the membership through
dedicated email blasts, periodic advertisements in the newsletter, and the
announcement of the conference in the events section of the website.
The ILN has formed partnerships with two
organizations. The first is
American Lawyer Media Events, a division of American Lawyer Media, which is a
leading integrated media company.
They publish award-winning publications such as The American Lawyer and
Corporate Counsel Magazine. ALM
Events is the conference division for ALM which produces such events as
LegalTech, the Corporate Counsel Forum, and T3 – Trial, Tactics &
Technology. Marty Beirne, of
Beirne, Maynard & Parsons in Houston, was very instrumental in introducing
the ILN to American Lawyer Media Events.
The first event that the ILN partnered with them on was the Global
Counsel Forum, which took place in New York in September. It was an opportunity to interact with
more than 80 general counsel and senior executives, and to showcase the Medical
Device Group for their recent roundtable publication. The ILN next partnered with ALM Events on their CMO Forum
and T3-Trial, Tactics & Technology, both of which took place in New York in
December. In addition, the ILN
partnered with the Asia Business Forum on their Legal Sys Tech conference in
November. They are one of Asia?s
leading providers of high-value business information, and they are the only
major conference company with a network of operating offices in Asia
researching and producing business conferences throughout the region. The ILN is working with both ALM Events
and the Asia Business Forum on future events, and hopes to assist them in
finding speakers within our membership for their programs.
In addition to developing and implementing these
media partnerships, the Board of Directors agreed at the 2006 Annual Meeting
that it would be helpful to identify and circulate major legal association
meetings where member firms were likely to have representatives in attendance
and ask member firms to advise the ILN of which of their colleagues was
planning to participate. The
Administration would then assist in making introductions to other ILN members
in order to stimulate networking opportunities and where possible, would
sponsor ILN ?get togethers? for those members in attendance. So far, we have circulated ten sets of
emails. Sylvia Linden and Paul
McDowall of Hellstrom attended the AIJA meeting, and following our email to the
membership, took the initiative to seek out ILN members. As a result, they met with Alexander
Wildshutz from Fladgate Fielder. The
emails have also generated several other networking opportunities, the 80th
National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, the ABA?s Midyear Meeting, the
ITechLaw European Conference, the SIFMA Compliance & Legal Division Annual
Seminar, the 6th Annual Legal Malpractice and Risk Management
Conference, and PTMG?s 74th Annual Conference.
Lindsay also discussed her attendance at the ARK
Group?s Strategic Marketing Conference in Chicago in September, which not only
allowed her to learn from the conference sessions, but also enabled her to
network with a number of legal marketing professionals. The networking assists in opening up
recruitment opportunities, raising the profile of the ILN, and identifying ways
to make ILN membership more valuable.
Lindsay met with Ross Fishman, who helps law firms and legal industry
companies in branding and advertising, among other activities, who later spoke
at the ILN?s 2006 Regional Meeting of the Americas in the Bahamas and is a
planned speaker for the 2007 Annual Meeting in New York. Both Alan and Peter Altieri noted that
Ross was an engaging, entertaining and inspirational speaker, who encouraged
everyone to think outside the box and to market as a specialist. Lindsay also met Larry Bodine, a
strategic marketing consultant, who is working with the ILN to put together a
webinar series, which will begin in April.
Lindsay
noted that push down is a critical element to ensuring that each firm gets the
most out of their membership. One
of the most successful ways of raising awareness is through Administration
visits to the firms. Lindsay?s
slides showed that there had been an overwhelming response following the ILN?s
request to the firms to set up a push-down visit, with almost half of firms
responding. She said that she and
Alan would be conducting the visits on an ongoing basis, and had already
visited over ten firms in the past two months, with planned visits for upcoming
months as well. Alan added that
for those firms in jurisdictions where it would be difficult to visit, the
Administration would be conducting web-based push down visits, using the
webinar technology.
The ILN has been working with
Sun Communications Group for the past year, focusing on a combination of a
domestic and international media relations program and a strong speaker program
for key attorneys within the ILN in different trade organizations. So far, the results include: Rebecca Donnini of
Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn in Detroit, Michigan will have an article
published in the February or March issue of the Journal of Financial Planning;
Peter Kirpensteijn was used as a source for Tax Business UK following Gary
Kaplan?s contribution to the same publication; both Bill Milani of Epstein Becker
& Green and Paul Starkman of Arnstein & Lehr were interviewed as
sources for an upcoming employment article in Business Week; the editor of
Business Week is interested in interviewing patent attorneys for a possible
story; and Lowell and Alan met with Tom Freeman of Legal 500, who is the editor
of their new business publication, Legal Business.
In addition to working with Sun Communications
Group, the ILN is continuing to send out press releases. The most recent of these is a release
sent out to announce the membership of both DAHL Law Firm in Copenhagen, which
was circulated to major media outlets in Germany, France and the UK and
Connolly Bove Lodge & Hutz in Delaware, which was circulated within the
United States through PR Newswire.
Marketing
Specialty Group:
Lindsay finished up by speaking about the newly
formed ILN Marketing Specialty Group, which was developed from the ad hoc group
formed in November of 2004. The goals
of the group are to serve as a means of sharing knowledge and best practices
among member firms, to assist the ILN Administration in its marketing efforts,
and to serve as a resource to firms in the Network without marketing
professionals or departments. To
push forward these goals, Lindsay formed a development committee, which
includes herself, Fritz Morsches from Honigman Miller Schwartz & Cohn,
Peter Feldman of Beirne Maynard & Parsons, and Kathy Major of McDonald
Hopkins. The development committee
met via teleconference in August to develop a series of action points to aid
the larger group of almost fifty participants in reaching its goals, and
subsequently followed this call up with a teleconference in January. Lindsay touched on a few of the actions
points identified by the group, including organizing a marketing session at
every ILN meeting, arranging for introductions between specific member firms,
circulating success stories, profiling ILN members in high growth jurisdictions
and copying marketing professionals on emails sent to main contacts. She also noted that all ILN member
marketing professionals in attendance at this year?s Legal Marketing
Association annual conference had been invited to an ILN networking lunch.
Alan then invited Preeti Saikia to give an update
on the ILN?s relationship with the Gerson Lehrman Group.
Preeti started by saying that the Gerson Lehrman
Group (GLG) provides corporate and investment decision makers with access to
their network of experts across the world, in various industries. Their clients consult with these
experts in various forms to gain information that is critical to their
investment and business development needs. GLG currently has more than 600 professional services firms
as clients, and more than 50,000 Council members across the world in various
industries. They break down their
industries into eight practice groups, which include the Legal, Economic,
Political and Regulatory Affairs Group (LERA). The LERA Group consists of more than 9,000 members around
the world, including lawyers, ex-government and regulatory officials, world
class economists, and academics.
Clients have access to various forms of
consultations, including teleconferences, surveys, seminars, and in-house
meetings, though the main form of consultation is telephone. For each business decision that they
are making, clients will call a variety of experts. Some of the areas that they are interested to consult on
include understanding the implications of certain legislation and treaties across
various countries, and gaining regulatory and political insight and economic
analysis on certain topics and issues. Preeti said that over the past twelve
months, the LERA Group has had approximately 3,500 consultations, with GLG as a
whole having about 125,000. She
noted that some of the benefits of joining GLG as a Council member include
introducing a new stream of revenue generation and the opportunity for
networking with business leaders around the world. She described the process of membership and consulting,
saying that whichever attorneys or partners within the firm are interested can
be included as a Council member once they have provided GLG with their profile
and bio and signed the terms and conditions. GLG?s clients then contact their research managers when they
have a question, and they utilize their database of attorneys to match the
right expertise to the question.
Once the best fit is identified, the lawyer is invited to consult,
generally via telephone. The
lawyer can either accept or decline, and there is no minimum for
acceptances. Lawyers are only
asked to consult on projects that they are comfortable discussing. If the lawyer does accept, the client
is provided with their contact information, and once the consultation has
occurred, the Council member logs their time on the GLG website to receive
their payment. There is no cost to
join.
Lindsay added that many people have asked if
these consultations are considered legal advice. She clarified that GLG likens it to cocktail party
conversation or a presentation to a group of people in that there?s no legal
contract created – it?s only for educational purposes, and their clients
are well aware of this. Preeti
invited anyone who has any questions or is interested in joining the LERA Group
to contact her.
After a short break, the group reconvened for a
roundtable. Alan invited Arthur
Koumoukelis from Gadens Lawyers to take the lead and discuss some of the
suggestions and opportunities that he had with the group. Arthur suggested that
the ILN create an area on its website that would be dedicated to information on
how to be a lawyer in various jurisdictions, and as part of this, include an
area that would raise awareness for other firms on lawyer exchange opportunities. He also said that a collection of
papers on ?Investing in? various jurisdictions would be useful. Arthur then went on to say that aged
care is a specialization of his, which he knows is considered part of different
industries in different countries.
In Australia, it has become a problem and so Arthur is curious about
what is going on with relation to this field in other jurisdictions and what
might the investment opportunities be.
He suggested that the articles in the ILN news database be categorized
by country, and then by practice groups to make them easier to browse, and also
said that dedicating newsletters to specific topics, such as franchising, might
be more useful than having a more general newsletter.
Peter Altieri commented on the lawyer exchange
program suggestion, saying that Epstein Becker & Green had hosted interns
in the past very successfully. He
considers it an additional form of push down, both for the visiting attorney
and the attorneys within the host firm, and encouraged the other firms to
consider this as a program. Alan
said that it might be useful for the ILN to put together a database of which
firms would be interested in sending and accepting attorneys, most likely 2-5
year associates. Arthur added that
his firm would be interested in bringing in more established corporate and
banking attorneys. Ravi noted that
his firm would be happy to host attorneys, and See Kiat Toh agreed that they
would welcome lawyers in Singapore, but said that they are selective about
which lawyers are invited. Alan
said that he would follow up on this by sending out an email to identify which
firms are interested.
With regard to Arthur?s discussion of aged care,
it was suggested that the ILN put together a template of questions that firms
can answer, similar to other topics that the Network has covered in the
past. Lorna indicated that in the
Philippines, they have a similar aging problem, but that the families are
expected to take care of their elderly relatives. She noted that some islands are being developed as
retirement communities, both foreign and domestic.
Bob Anderson commented on Arthur?s point about
papers dedicated to ?Investing in? various jurisdictions, and said that each
firm should put together a two to three page fact sheet that can be
downloadable on the ILN website .
Ravi added that his firm is putting together a new website as part of
their site that is designed for this purpose and covers a number of topics. The site will be located at
indialaws.org, and is in the final testing stages. Sandy Lin indicated that partners at her firm are working to
write articles that answer the common questions that investors have, and this
is also an effective way to get information disseminated.
The group then discussed Larry Bodine?s webinar
series, and Lindsay agreed to speak with Larry about the possibility of viewing
the webinars online after they had taken place, to allow those in other time
zones to access them. See Kiat
noted that the webinars might not be as useful within Asia, because personal
relationships are so important.
His firm is working with other ILN members in the Asia Pacific region to
put together live seminars to get the best of both worlds.
Ravi and Alan welcomed the
assembled delegates to the Friday business session.
Ravi began with an overview of
his firm, saying that Singhania & Partners is a full service national firm
with offices in four locations, New Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and
Mumbai. In addition, they also
have local associates in 65 locations across India, covering twenty
states. The firm practices in a
number of areas, and Ravi touched on a few of these as particular
strengths. In their corporate and
commercial practice, they handle various commercial transactions including
mergers and acquisitions, banking and finance, company law, foreign
collaborations, securities, agency and distribution, contract, trade law, and
transfer of technology. They have
acted for companies such as AOL Inc., Ericsson & Marconi, the McGraw Hill
Companies, Warner Bros. and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India, Ltd. Ravi?s firm also provides advice on all
aspects of ADR/GDR/AIM listings, disinvestments, equity and debt public
offerings, mutual funds, and securities and exchange Board of India
regulations, acting for Standard & Poor?s, among others. Singhania & Partners?
real estate expertise extends to title searches, including the Revenue and
Municipal records, physical verification of the premises, negotiating terms of
lease/license with the owner and drafting of lease/license documents and
registration formalities, for companies such as AOL Inc., McGraw Hill
Companies, and National Instruments.
In employment law, the firm has acted for Digital Publishing Solutions,
GreenPoint Mortgage, Huawei Technologies, National Instruments, and Sun Life
Insurance. Singhania &
Partners? Project Finance team provides advice on all aspects of project risk
assessment, minimization and management, external council borrowings including
credit capacity, cash flow projections, etc., structured finance and
securitization issues, and banks syndications and transactions management. They have acted for BHW Birla
Home Finance Ltd, and IFCI Limited, among others. The firm has also assisted clients in infrastructure
projects in various capacities, from general infrastructure work for Flughafen
Munchen GmbH (FMG) and other companies, to roads and highway projects for the
National Highways Authority of India Ltd., to power, oil and gas projects for
Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd. and others, to telecom work for
Ericsson, MCI, RailTel and Telenor ASA, and railways projects for Rail Vikas
Nigam Limited and RailTel Corporation.
Ravi?s firm is also proficient
in software technology and e-commerce work, advising both domestic and foreign
corporations with legal and regulatory issues in the IT and Telecom sectors,
including Altera, AOL, Mentor Graphics, Network Solutions, and National
Instruments. In business process
outsourcing, they assist clients such as AOL, Solectron, Intellirisk, and
Mphasis in setting up business process outsourcing services. Pharmaceuticals and food is another
area of practice for the firm, and Singhania & Partners has advised clients
such as Herbalife International and Mead Johnson Nutritionals. In the arena of foreign direct
investment, the firm regularly advises foreign investors with respect to FDI in
India, on issues such as entry strategy, establishing wholly owned subsidiaries,
joint ventures, foreign collaborations, technology licensing, currency control
regulations, establishment of representative/project offices/branches in India,
and assistance in obtaining regulatory approvals from Reserve Bank of India and
Foreign Investment Promotion Board.
In this regard, they have acted for ABS Group of Companies, Brightpoint
Inc., Marconi Communication, and Fedders Corporation. The firm also provides advisory services in both direct and
indirect taxes, and does intellectual property work, most notably
trademark/copyright work and patents.
In litigation and arbitration, they have acted for a number of clients,
including ABB Limited, Fedders Corporation, General Electric, New Holland Tractors,
and Ricoh India. The firm also has
a team of experienced insurance lawyers, acting for CGU Life, Federated Mutual
and MetLife. Ravi closed with an
overview of his team of partners, as well as the associate offices the firm is
affiliated with in India.
Mark began by thanking Ravi,
and saying that because he considers networks to be the most important asset
you can have, he always accepts opportunities to meet with and speak to group
such as the ILN. He gave a brief
introduction about himself, noting that he first came to India in the eighties,
and then spent the next several years trying to find a job that would allow him
to return. He was eventually
posted to India as the Deputy British High Commissioner and expressed what a
privilege it was to have this position.
Currently, he is working in a wide variety of areas in India, including
working for India?s leading NGO and acting as a chair for various companies,
ranging from IT to financial services.
His comments with regard to
India focused on economics, culture, and politics, beginning with politics so
as to set the context for business activities in India. He noted that India is one of the most
politicized countries in the world, and said that there are two significant
political tracks at the moment.
The first of these is that there is considerable economic and political
bullishness, while there are also political divisions. With regard to the economy, Mark said
that he would defer to Mr. Kacker on the issue of infrastructure, which he
noted is clearly the most important issue facing India today. He summed up by commenting on doing
business in India. Mark said that
many people have asked him whether doing business in India has changed
dramatically since he first arrived in India in the eighties. While he agreed that it has in some
ways, as far as the human element goes, it has stayed very much the same. It is still a very complex business
environment, not only at the national level because of the huge morass of
regulations, but also because of the additional considerations in place, first
at the state level, and then at the city level. In addition, there are also cultural issues involved. Mark noted that many British companies
had come in, assuming that it would be similar to doing business in Canada, for
example, and it isn?t. It is
necessary for a company to demonstrate their quality and their commitment to
the local market. Mark recommended
finding an effective and trustworthy Indian partner, which can take several
months, but is time well spent.
There is no substitute for having someone on the ground, not only
because they know the right people to talk to (although, everyone will say that
they know the right people to talk to), but also because they will have the
presence and the trustworthiness to assist in doing business. Once this partnership has been
established, only then can the company discuss how to position their product
and begin to sell it.
Another issue when doing
business in India is an understanding of the patience necessary when expecting
delivery. The time between the
initial agreement and delivery is extremely long, but with the right partner
and patience, it will eventually come.
A Financial Times correspondent in India, Ed Luce, has published a book
called ?In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India,? which is a
comprehensive book on the subject.
Mark was kind enough to take
questions following his comments.
Arthur asked if it was the case that a company is not necessarily
excluded from operating in India, but that the cultural, social and financial
concerns push you towards having a strategic partner. Mark answered that it depends upon the sector, and there are
many sectors where the company is obliged to have shared equity. Although there are sectors where it is
not required, Mark said that there are many reasons to join with a significant
strategic partner. He also
discussed his thoughts on the preferred types of vehicles for structuring these
partnerships, and commented on a comparison between India and the Philippines
with regard to call centers. Mark
also spoke about his opinion regarding whether India or China would be the next
economic power, with the caveat that his expertise is on India, and not
China.
Mr. Mukesh Kacker spoke about
investment opportunities in India, looking at a macroeconomic perspective,
explaining the investment opportunities, and then focusing on infrastructure
and India?s FDI policy, specifically relating to highways, railways, ports,
airports, telecom and power. Mr.
Kacker explained that India?s economic growth is based on a series of five year
plans developed by the government.
The ninth plan covered 1997-98 to 2001-02, during which the GDP growth
was 5.5% and the Gross Domestic Savings was 23.1% of the GDP. In the tenth plan, from 2002-03 to
2006-07, this growth jumped to 7.0% for the GDP and 28.2% Gross Domestic
Savings. Gross Domestic
Investments increased from 23.8% of the GDP to 27.5%, and the Foreign Exchange
reserves went from $54.2 billion US to $151.6 billion US. The 11th plan projections
show that the estimated GDP growth will be 8.5%, with a Gross Domestic Savings
of 31.0%. The Gross Domestic
Investments are expected to increase to 33.6%.
Mr. Kacker said that
preliminary exercises suggest that investment in infrastructure (defined as
road, rail, air, ports, power, telecommunication, water supply, irrigation, and
storage) will need to increase from 4.6% of the GDP to between 7% and 8% in the
11th plan. This would
mean an approximate investment of US$320 billion. He noted that in general, investment opportunities are driven
by the existence and growth of markets, as well as the availability of
resources and global competitiveness.
India offers both of these, and Mr. Kacker expanded on this to say that
India offers a fertile market for investment opportunity because there has been
exponential growth in the market for a wide range of consumer products; a
demographic transition has put a larger percentage of the population in the
income-earning age groups and coupled with rising economic growth has
translated to growing levels of affluence; critical institutional changes, such
as the expansion of retail credit disbursal from the banking system and the
fall of interest rates, have been conducive to the consumer boom; and the
Indian middle class?s consumer?s consumption patterns are also witnessing a
rapid transformation and this is driving the rapid change in the markets for
goods and services. In addition,
India?s most critical resource is the large pool of cost-effective, yet highly
skilled, labor. Other positive
enabling factors are the availability of skilled manpower for managerial
levels, a developed capital market, fine banking system, strong judicial structure,
and improving IPR regime, as well as India?s natural resources.
Mr. Kacker told the assembled
delegates that the government?s strategy has been to focus on creating
incentives for private sector investment as well as participating directly as a
key investor. They have been
progressively reducing governmental control to allow for easy entry into the
private sector, and FDI norms have been eased, with 100% investment currently
allowed in most of the infrastructure sectors. (For more information on the FDI norms in the infrastructure
sector, please contact Lindsay Griffiths for the presentation slides.)
Mr. Kacker went on to describe
the government?s ambitious program for highway development, stating that the
National Highways Authority of India is implementing this National Highways
Development Project, which has seven planned phases. He described three methods for public private partnership
(PPP) with regard to the road sector, including design-build-finance-operate;
build-operate-transfer (toll); and build-operate-transfer (authority). There are a number of incentives
associated with PPP, such as the Model Concession Agreement (MCA) standardized;
provision of encumbrance free site for construction (government bears
expenditure for land acquisition and pre-construction activities); retention of
toll by concessionaire for BOT-Toll projects; tax concessions; duty free import
of high capacity and modern equipments, and Viability Gap Funding up to 40% of
the project cost. Over the next
five years, more than $50-$60 billion of investments will be required to
improve road infrastructure, and a large component of the highways will be
developed through PPP. As a
result, there are investment opportunities for contractors, O & M
contractors, supervision consultants, equipment manufacturers/suppliers, toll
operator, and Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) companies.
With regard to the railways,
the government is also undertaking an ambitious program, requiring an
approximate investment of $80 billion.
Opportunities for PPP include the dedicated freight corridor project, world
class railway stations, passenger amenities, and commercial utilization of
surplus land, SPVs for manufacturing locomotives, coaches and other railway
equipment, hospitality, tourism, and catering, as well as the operation of
container trains. The ports are
also in need of foreign investment, approximately $13.5 billion over the next
seven years in the major ports, and $4.5 billion in the minor ports. Investment opportunities for the
private sector are in all areas of port development activities and operations,
and PPP is seen by the government to be the key to improving major and minor
ports, with 64% of the proposed investment in major ports expected to come from
private players. Similarly, PPP
plays a major role in the redevelopment of India?s airports. With air traffic expected to surpass
100 million passengers by 2010, from 60 million in 2004-05, there is a need for
massive expansion and upgrading of airport infrastructure. The government is keen to draw private
investment in generation, transmission and distribution, and so there are opportunities
in transmission network ventures and in distribution, with a total investment
opportunity of $200 billion over the next seven years.
Mr. Kacker finished his
presentation with comments about investment opportunities in the
telecommunications infrastructure.
He said that Indian telecom has grown at about 25% over the past five
years, and is currently growing at 40%.
Over four million users are added every month, mostly in wireless. As a result, there is an investment
opportunity of $22 billion across many areas: telecom devices and software for
the internet, broadband and DTH services, Set Top Boxes, Gateway exchange,
modem, mobile handsets, gaming devices EPABX, telecom software, etc. For a complete set of the presentation
slides, please contact Lindsay Griffiths.
Mr. Kacker was also kind
enough to answer questions. See
Kiat inquired about investment opportunities for water projects. Mr. Kacker said that water
infrastructure projects are very important, but said that he did not have the
figures for investment with him.
Ravi gave the closing remarks
to the assembled delegates. He
thanked everyone for coming to New Delhi.
Delegates and companions were
treated to magical evening at the Lodi Gardens in New Delhi. The guests enjoyed a traditional Indian
welcome as they entered the softly lit gardens where dinner was to be served, a
real haven of tranquility and peace from the hustle and bustle of Delhi. Classical Indian music set the ambience
for the evening, and delegates and companions were riveted by the traditional
Indian dances, culminating with a woman who danced on swords and even broken
glass! The conversation at each of
the tables was just as stimulating and it was certainly a spectacular way to
wrap up the conference and remember India by!
