Dubai’s ascendancy in shipping has prompted law firm Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) to bolster its ranks there.
The behemoth snagged collapsed Ince & Co’s four-person United Arab Emirates-based disputes team in March, and last week announced partner Emily Widdrington would be trading London for Dubai to work in a ship finance role.
“We’ve always considered Dubai to be an important maritime hub. In the last couple of years, Dubai has blossomed even more in terms of its maritime capabilities,” Global maritime sector head George Macheras said.
“From our perspective, as the largest maritime law firm, we want to make sure that one of the hottest maritime hubs has our presence.”
Macheras described the city as having become one of the world’s maritime centres like New York, London or Singapore, rather than supplanting them.
He said he was not sure if Dubai would reach the heights of those cities, but believes it will at least become a regional hotspot.
It also opens avenues for new forms of business for the firm and the industry.
One potential spot for new WFW business is working with Middle East-based financiers and on deals using Islamic finance.
“Alternative structures of financing are becoming more and more popular, so Islamic finance ... all sorts of Middle Eastern types of finance which have been used in other asset financings but less so in shipping may well become relevant going forward. We want to ensure we’re positioning ourselves for that,” Macheras said.
Islamic finance provides money in ways compliant with religious law, mainly prohibitions on earning interest and taking on unnecessary financial risk.
Such deals are often linked to assets and can see lenders take an equity stake in an asset, buy an asset outright or enter into a lease-to-own-style contract.
Among major shipping players, Saudi Arabia state-backed shipowner Bahri has used Islamic finance to raise money for newbuildings. Reports have also linked regional offshore vessel owners to compliant financing deals.
“We as a firm offer a one-stop shop service to all maritime clients, be it finance, be it disputes, be it everything, so we just want to make sure that we’re servicing all of that,” Macheras said.
