Mid-tier looks to international growth

Speaking with Accountants Daily, Bentleys Queensland partner Martin Power said that firms across the network are looking at diversifying their offerings with new service areas.

“International services are an important growth area for some firms in the network,” Mr Power said.

“Assisting migrants and overseas businesses to set up in Australia has been a bit of a new niche and growth area for a few of the firms in the network.”

Bentleys CEO Mark Chapman added that the network now has on the ground presence in three Chinese cities to facilitate that work.

“What we found with China is that there's a need for business both ways,” Mr Chapman said.

“The Chinese like to see a presence, like to see a commitment and have a foot on the ground, so we've essentially got a presence now in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing, related to some of the offices we have, in order to facilitate that business requirement.”

Both Mr Power and Mr Chapman said that they would look at other countries and regions too.

“There's no restrictions [on international services] however the interest has been coming mainly from China and that's why we've got firms that are focused on that,” Mr Power said.

“We're very much also looking at Europe as well,” Mr Chapman added.