DAC Beachcroft has strengthened its presence in Latin America by becoming the first European-based firm to launch in Chile by acquiring two local firms.
Chilean players SegurosLex and Amunategui y Cia joined the English firm to create DAC Beachcroft Chile at the beginning of November in a move to extend its leading insurance practice in the continent.
DAC Beachcroft is also keen to seal a partnership with Colombian firm De La Torre & Monroy within the next 12 months. De La Torre works primarily with insurers and undertakes a lot of work related to the London market, so would be a logical fit for the major UK firm.
DAC Beachcroft managing partner Paul Murray said: ‘Following Chile, Colombia is our next destination – we already work with partners who also participate in our partners’ conference.’
Murray said Chile was the first step towards building a stronger base to serve its insurance clients, both domestic and international, and also provides strong links to the Colombian and Mexican markets.
‘DAC Beachcroft Chile marks another significant step toward our goal of becoming the leading international provider of legal services to the insurance sector,’ he said. ‘The team in Chile shares the same dedication to client care, business relationships and quality service as all our DAC Beachcroft locations.’
The new Santiago office will specialise in working with international insurers, advising on all corporate, commercial, regulatory and claims issues. The firm will also provide full-service legal support for global investors in Chile and local clients.
‘This office raises our London profile as a true global player in the insurance market.’
Paul Murray, DAC Beachcroft
The new practice is already working on a series of litigation matters referred from the London office and Murray said many insurance claims in the UK market have a Chilean angle. At present, the office – headed by partners Sergio Arellano Iturriaga, Andrés Amunátegui Echeverría and Guillermo Amunátegui Errázuriz – has been busy handling litigation cases around mining and construction disputes in Chile.
Murray said Chile was an important destination because of its capacity to service its existing insurance clients more efficiently rather than its ability to increase the firm’s revenues. The firm’s target clients are the large global insurers such as Zurich, AXA and QBE Insurance Group.
‘This office raises our London profile as a true global player in the insurance market and will lead to further mergers and openings of offices,’ he said. ‘We can now advise clients investing and establishing businesses in Chile on a much broader basis than simply handling their claims.
‘DAC Beachcroft is simply following its clients’ lead to those locations where they see opportunity and Latin America is one of them,’ he added. While mature economies in Europe continue to struggle, emerging economies such as Latin America provide a prime opportunity for better margins at a time when established markets are providing dwindling gains.
As the first European-based law firm to set up in Chile, DAC Beachcroft is keen to exploit what it perceives as a competitive advantage over other international insurance rivals such as Clyde & Co and Kennedys. Kennedys opened a Miami office in 2010, which it uses to service Caribbean and Latin American clients and has ties with Acuña & Cia Abogados in Chile, Torres Marcellino & Associados in Brazil and Bufete Solís Marín in Mexico. Clyde & Co, meanwhile, has had its own office in Venezuela for 18 years, which focuses on insurance and reinsurance work, shipping and aviation, as well as energy and trade.
‘We are proud of having established a stronger presence in South America than our other competitors. We have a first-mover advantage that we need to capitalise on,’ Murray said.
Another firm that has recently moved into the Andean region is global firm Baker & McKenzie (see LB229, page 13), which became the first international law firm to set up in Peru in October. Bakers also has a presence in Colombia and Chile, which together with Peru forms the so-called ‘Andean Three’.
Having followed in the footsteps of a global giant like Bakers, Murray said he expects other European, English and American insurance advisory firms to follow and open in Latin America in the next couple of years.
Other global firms with an existing presence in the region include Norton Rose, which gained a Colombia base in Bogotá in 2010. While Norton Rose has a strong corporate insurance practice in the UK, its Colombia office focuses on advising clients in the oil and gas, mining, real estate, electricity and power industries, leveraging off its strong reputation in the energy and mining sector. Norton Rose chief executive Peter Martyr told LB that following the recent announcement of its game-changing merger with Fulbright & Jaworski in June, expansion in Brazil is next on the agenda in a move to strengthen its Latin American reach.
DAC Beachcroft’s business model has very much been based on expansion through mergers and acquisitions, going back to the merger of Beachcroft Stanleys and Wansbroughs Willey Hargrave in 1999 to the landmark union of Beachcroft and Davies Arnold Cooper last year. This summer the firm also merged with Andersons Solicitors in Scotland and although Murray said further UK mergers were not on the cards, a partnership with Canadian firm McCague Borlack in 2014 is currently under discussion.
He added that the firm’s global vision is ambitious, but also reasonably cautious. The firm is not interested in loose associations but full-on partnerships, so is taking its time to find the right people.
The firm’s combined turnover is expected to be £192m in 2013, up £29m from its latest year-end figure in June: a combined turnover of £163m following the DAC merger a year ago.