Ahead of its three-way tie-up with CMS Cameron McKenna and Olswang, Nabarro has increased its half-year revenues to £57.5m for the first six months of the 2016/17 financial year, up 2% on the same period last year.
The firm saw strong performances in its disputes division and its business advisory group, which includes its corporate team. The firm also reported a 6% rise in work in progress (WIP) added.
The £57.5m compares to £56.3m in the first six months of 2015/16. In the last financial year, Nabarro posted a revenue rise of 3.5% up to £130.4m. It follows comes amid a steady period of growth for the firm, which had increased its turnover for the last four years.
Nabarro said it had also continued with a rigorous cost-cutting programme to boost its profitability, which has seen profit per equity partner increase 77% over the last four years to£585,000. The firm has also moved to pare back its pension liabilities, cutting its deficit from £31.9m to £12.2m, according to its latest LLP filing for the year ending April 2016.
This solid revenue boost to is well timed for Nabarro ahead of its tie-up with Olswang and Camerons, which is set to go live in May 2017.The three firms confirmed their merger talks in September, with the vote going through in early October.
Nabarro said it was focused on ‘business as usual’ for the second half of its last year as an independent firm. Senior partner Ciaran Carvalho (pictured) said: ‘This is a good performance by Nabarro ahead of our combination next year… It’s an exciting time, but also a challenging time for some, so I appreciate everyone’s ongoing commitment.
‘Our pipeline of work suggests we should be confident about the second half of the year. We are also confident that the pace, planning and precision of the integration process will ensure the combination with CMS and Olswang on 1 May 2017 will deliver more than the sum of its parts for our people, our clients and the new firm.’
matthew.field@legalease.co.uk