Burness Paull affirms foreign focus

Burness Paull has affirmed its focus on building relationships with foreign jurisdictions.

Speaking to The Herald, firm chairman Philip Rodney said Burness Paull has a hit-list of countries it is focusing on.

“The US, Canada and Norway have been strong for us and more recently it’s been Israel, China and India,” he said.

“We’ve been out to India a couple of times this year, getting traction in relation to oil and gas.

“There are lots of technology companies in Israel with overliquidity, they are looking for things to invest in.

“And by the next Year of the Rooster — 2029 — it is suggested China will own a third of global assets. Whether that’s true or not the direction of travel is that there’s going to a lot more investment from China so we are not just selling us but selling Scotland as a place to invest.”

The firm now sees 40 per cent of its revenues stem from transactions involving one or more country outwith the UK.

But the dip in Aberdeen’s oil fortunes has impacted the firm’s turnover which rose by four per cent in 2015/16.

Mr Rodney said: “Aberdeen as a city is interesting.

“I read an article that said normal will be the new normal in Aberdeen – it will move from being a city with peaks and troughs to a normal city with normal levels of unemployment and normal hotel prices.

“It will still prosper and a lot of the oil and gas activity will be more integrated with energy more generally. Aberdeen will go through that process of reinvention.”