City outfit Travers Smith has become the latest UK law firm to post strong results for the past financial year, registering a 9% rise in revenue to break the £100m boundary.
Buoyed by an active deal market in the City, particularly within the private equity space where high returns on post-financial crisis investments sparked a series of sell-offs, Travers capitalised on its strong deal reputation to pull in an £8.8m extra in turnover to reach revenues of £106m for the 2014/15 financial year. As a result, profit per equity partner (PEP) soared 6% to £935,000 as the average pay for equity partners rose by £55,000 from last year.
The results also marks back-to-back growth at the 300-lawyer firm, with double-digit increases in revenue and PEP recorded in the 2013/14 financial year. However, the firm was outpaced by fellow City firm Macfarlanes which revealed last week it had grown revenues 14% to £160m for the last financial year with PEP jumping 30% to £1.55m from £1.2m.
The upbeat results follow a string of high profile deal instructions, with Travers advising the equity-holding management of RAC as private equity giant Carlyle sold the roadside recovery company to Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC; the equity-holding management of Europe’s second-largest, second-hand vehicle auctioneer BCA Marketplace as private equity house Clayton, Dubilier & Rice sold its investment to Haversham Holdings; and took a lead role on the £3.4bn UK High Court dispute between Hewlett-Packard and Autonomy founder Michael Lynch over allegations of fraudulent accounting ahead of the IT giant’s infamous takeover.
Travers Smith’s new managing partner David Patient (pictured), who replaced the longstanding Andrew Lilley at the start of the year, said: ‘This is a strong set of financial results, and with turnover exceeding £100m for the first time, a landmark achievement for the firm. Our performance is particularly robust in the context of the significant investment we are currently making in our business and people, including a complete refurbishment of our office space and the promotion of nine new partners this year and two lateral hires, demonstrating our commitment to growth.’
tom.moore@legalease.co.uk
