UK firm Ince & Co has added a new partner in Hong Kong to reinforce its Asia transactional practice.

Balbir Bindra joins the firm from CEC North Star Energy where he was executive director of legal affairs.

Jan Heuvels, Ince & Co’s international senior partner, said of the hire: “The recruitment of Balbir…provides further evidence of the progress that we are making in achieving our key strategic objective of growing our transactional capability to complement our leading contentious reputation in our chosen sectors and geographies.”

Bindra is a banking and finance lawyer with experience in the energy, asset-based finance and investment sectors in the private sector and at international law firms. Previously he was a partner at the Hong Kong offices of Locke Lord and Sidley Austin.

The hire is part of the firm’s strategy to enhance its transactional capability in its core sectors of shipping, aviation, energy, insurance and international trade. This strategy was dealt a blow when the UK firm lost three partners in Singapore late last year.