The UK’s first listed law firm, West-Midlands based Gateley said it is on track to lift revenues by 10% to take the firm’s revenue increase over the last six months to just short of the £30m mark.
In its second trading update issued today (November 16) the firm said it has ‘made a solid start to the financial year and is trading in-line with management expectations. Revenues for the first six months are expected to be not less than £29.5m, being not less than 10% ahead of the corresponding pro-forma period last year’
Gateley plans to announce the group’s audited half year results in December.
The firm said in July that revenue had increased by 10% to ‘not less than £60m’ for the 2014/15 financial year.
The results are a marked increase on last year when the firm posted turnover of £53.8m, up 6% from £50.7m, while profit rose from £17.1m in 2013 to £20.4m. LLP accounts filed at Companies House for 2013/14 showed that cash at bank and in hand totalled over £1.9m, while net debt amounted to £1.5m. It also cleared an overdraft totalling £464,667.
The 380 fee-earner outfit became the first UK-listed law firm in June with an Gateley on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM). It set aside £5m for investment from the float which placed 31.6m ordinary shares with institutional and other investors at 95 pence per share.
The firm had a market capitalisation of £100m on admission – down from the initially targeted range of between £130m to £140m.
kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk
For more on Gateley’s decision to float see: ‘Selling the family silver: Will Gateley’s listing on London’s stock exchange pay off?’