One of the most striking trends seen in the global M&A markets throughout the past 18 months is the intensity of China’s interest in overseas acquisitions. Some of the headline transactions include PetroChina and Royal Dutch Shell’s joint acquisition of Brisbane-based Arrow Energy, CNOOC’s 20-year LNG purchase agreement with BG Group, Shanghai Jin Jiang Hotels partnership with Thayer to acquire NYSE-listed Interstate Hotels & Resorts, and China Nonferrous Metals’ partial offer for Lynas Corporation.

The explosion of Sino-foreign M&A activity has been the impetus for both international and domestic firms to ramp up their ability to handle outbound transactions. “The outbound market has certainly been very active – we’re seeing increasing interest from Chinese companies, especially in the natural resources, manufacturing, technology, media and mining industries,” says Xu Ping, partner at King & Wood. “This has called for a lot of attention from both PRC and international law firms.” Over the past two years, King & Wood has extensively developed its outbound M&A practice, building a dedicated task force equipped with US and Canada-trained lawyers. The firm now has 30 lawyers focused on outbound work, part of an even larger M&A team.

The firm’s closest rival, Jun He, has also boosted its capabilities. “We have a new working group which consists of partners from Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai. These lead partners have a lot of experience in both inbound and outbound M&A work,” says John Chu, a co-founding partner.

As domestic firms have reinforced their M&A capabilities to attract mandates on cross-border transactions, international firms have also found it imperative to devote themselves to outbound work. Freshfields, which recently facilitated Geely’s acquisition of Volvo from Ford, is a prime example. “The most prominent change for our Greater China practice is that we are seeing more outbound M&A opportunities,” says Robert Ashworth, partner and head of Asian corporate practice at Freshfields. “Over the past 12 months, that’s where most of the action and our focus have been. We have moved key people around within departments and out to Asia,” he adds.