Four months after its headline merger, Ince Gordon Dadds has secured £23m of business by formally incorporating five international legacy Ince & Co offices to its network.
Effective earlier this week (1 April), former Ince network firms in Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, Greece and Germany have all become more closely aligned with the newly-merged business.
The new offices effectively add to the top line, which currently stands at £77m, by a further £23m, creating a £100m firm as a result. The Hong Kong outpost is the highest contributor, turning over £9m for the 2017/18 financial year. Dubai posted £5m in revenues for the same time period, with Germany, Greece and Singapore recording £4m, £3m and £2m respectively.
According to the firm, the international network will be unified ‘through membership of a new non-trading international governance entity’ which will see the offices ‘commit to a common structure’ that will govern its membership, business, conduct and management. They will continue to be separate legal entities owned by the local partners, but will adopt Ince branding. Combined, new international entity will bring 19 additional partners into the business, which now totals around 450 fee earners globally.
Chief executive Adrian Biles told Legal Business the only legacy Ince offices yet to be incorporated are Paris and Monaco, with discussions ongoing: ‘We would be delighted to move forward together but we have to resolve any potential issues between us first.’
He added: ‘We needed to have a structure which provided for common profit sharing, common usage of intellectual property, common professional indemnity insurance, but most importantly, common standards of quality and value. This governance structure should be the glue that helps us provide the right quality of service to our clients across the board.’
The tie-up between Gordon Dadds and Ince was officially completed on 31 December 2018, but due to time constraints, international elements of the legacy Ince business were left aside to be fully incorporated at a later date.
In March, a damning creditor’s report from Quantuma emphasised the urgency of the merger, stating Ince would have collapsed in January 2019 were it not for Gordon Dadds’ intervention.
