Having enjoyed many years of "monopoly" in China, Canadian firm Blake, Cassels & Graydon will have to face direct competition from a Canadian competitor in the China market for the first time. Calgary-based law firm Bennett Jones has recently opened a representative office in Beijing, its first location outside Canada.

Growing Chinese interest in investing into Canada, particularly in the energy & resources sector, is a main reason for the firm to set up an office in Beijing. According to a recent market research report, Chinese companies' acquisitions targeting Canada and the USA in the first nine months of this year amount to US$6.8bn, up 81% from the same period last year. The energy & resources sector alone accounts for 70% (US$4.8bn) of the activity.

Canadian firms have benefited from that shift in interest. Blake, Cassels & Graydon and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, for example, won mandates in the Sinopec-Syncrude deal in April this year - the largest Chinese acquisition of a Canadian company on record.

Bennett Jones' Toronto managing partner, Stephen Bowman, sees the Beijing office as a key development for the firm to participate in the rapid expansion of Canada-China business in sectors ranging from trade in goods and services to technology transfers, joint ventures, and investment.

The firm's senior advisor Margaret Cornish has been appointed as the chief representative in Beijing and will lead the Beijing team to serve both existing and prospective clients in Canada-China investment, trade and other transactions.

The firm has around 380 legal staff in its offices in Calgary, Toronto, Edmonton, Ottawa and Beijing. ALB

Related stories:

• North American firms to gain from surging outbound M&A (16 September 2010)