Shakespeare Martineau has revealed its first post-merger turnover figure of £71m, down 6% on the combined figure of £75.6m for legacy Shakespeares which stood at £49m and legacy SGH Martineau which was £26.6m for the financial year 2014/15. The firm’s profit per equity partner came in at £236,000.
Speaking to Legal Business, Shakespeare Martineau chief executive Andy Raynor said that across the whole firm, everyone benefited from the merger due to the increased opportunities and breadth of service, and the drop in turnover was down to post-merger client conflicts.
‘On an annualised basis turnover would be £73m. The difference is always going to be what happens in a merger where there are limited things you can’t do simply because there are those conflicts and where you effectively exclude yourself from the marketplace. But actually in comparison with most mergers that is a really small amount.’
‘The things we have liked most in terms of our performance is the performance of the defined sectors, so rather than picking a service or a particular office, I think were we have seen the most traction is where we have got real expertise and that is in particular in investment funds, in energy, in education.’
Midland firms Shakespeares and SGH Martineau confirmed last June that they would merge to create a firm with a legal force of around 900 people. The merged firm has offices in Birmingham, Leicester, London, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Solihull, Stratford-upon-Avon and Sheffield with one international outpost in Brussels.
In December last year, the acquisitive Shakespeare Martineau merged with London-based commercial law firm, Macrae & Co in the latest of a string of acquisitions.
In August 2012 Shakespeares notably combined with Leicester-based stalwart Harvey Ingram and in 2013 the firm acquired another Leicester practice, Marrons, as well as Coventry-based Newsome Vaughan while obtaining an alternative business licence to cater for insurance clients.
Recently-merged Weightmans revealed last week while revenue was up 7% to £95m, it failed to meet its £100m revenue target despite the combination.
kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk