News
Issue No. 40 - April/ /
TGB shares in Chinese revolution
Adelaide law firm Tindall Gask Bentley is on the A list of corporate visitors to China these days, but not for the firm’s well-established personal injury practice.
TGB is giving rapidly growing Chinese companies a pathway to the outside world through listing on the ASX and after four years of hard slog TGB is starting to share in the Chinese industrial revolution.
TGB’s role is to organize advisors and other resources Chinese companies need for the listing process. The partner in charge of the program, Brendan Connell, says Chinese business people are good to deal with.
“The fact that we’re from Adelaide (not Sydney or Melbourne) makes no difference to them,” he says.
What’s the incentive for Chinese firms to list on the Australian Securities Exchange?
Listing on the Shanghai or Shenzhen stock exchanges can take five or six years in a process subject to final government approval. Chinese firms think seriously about listing in foreign markets and Brendan points out that the threshold for entry to the ASX is low by international standards.
Ownership rules are liberal in Australia – Chinese nationals can own property, whereas Australians can buy property in China only after living there for a year.
“Adelaide has a huge advantage with its regional (migration) status,” Brendan says, noting Chinese business people who want to move here don’t have to speak English to be allowed entry. They still have to start a business within a year, but listing on the ASX fulfils that requirement.
“(Individuals) tend to be independently wealthy and have many children, in spite of China’s former one-child policy, and they want them to be both well-educated and fluent in English.”
TGB was drawn into this line of work five years ago when Fai Peng Chen, an Adelaide-trained graduate lawyer, floated the idea. He proposed alliances be explored with Chinese law firms whose clients may be intere...
