Macfarlanes has reported robust financial results for 2019/20 – its tenth consecutive year of revenue growth – with virtually double-digit increases in turnover and profit per equity partner (PEP).
Added to this, the firm has also announced an 88% retention rate of trainees qualifying next month, as well as the lateral hire of well-regarded finance partner Malcolm Hitching. Continue reading “Defying gravity – double-digit boost marks a decade of revenue growth for Macfarlanes”
Listed law firm Ince Group, which previously operated as Gordon Dadds, has produced impressive double-digit revenue growth in its first full financial year since the acquisition of shipping specialist Ince & Co.
Revenues soared an impressive 87% to £98.5m, narrowly missing the £100m target set by Ince Group CEO Adrian Biles last November, while operating profit rose a hefty 72% to £26.2m from £15.2m last year. However, Ince’s organic growth produced a more muted 5% growth, according to the firm’s announcement on the London Stock Exchange. Continue reading “Revenues soar at Ince but stop just shy of £100m target after tumultuous year”
Penningtons Manches Cooper produced a strong showing in 2019/20, the firm’s latest financial results show, with revenue and profits both enjoying an uptick following last summer’s tie up between legacy firms Penningtons Manches and Thomas Cooper.
Revenues rose 17% to £93m over the last financial year, up from £79.5m last year, while overall profits soared to £28m after a disappointing 15% drop last year to £14.5m. Disputes has become the main engine room at the firm, producing more than 50% of Penningtons’ material output following a focus on growing its contentious practices. Continue reading “‘Complacency not an option’ at Penningtons as revenues and profits hike following 2019 merger”
Withers saw profit per equity partner (PEP) enjoy a hefty rise over 2019/20, with a period of international expansion beginning to bear fruit at the top-30 LB100 firm. Revenue, meanwhile, enjoyed a double-digit rise as the firm steels itself for a ‘volatile’ year ahead.
PEP enjoyed a striking 41% hike to £501,000, up from £354,000 last year when partner profits endured a 12% drop, although the firm’s equity ranks did shrink by five partners across 2019/20. Overall profit now stands at £42.1m, a 34% increase, while revenues enjoyed a 14% rise to £219m, up from £193.2m. Continue reading “Investments pay off at Withers as PEP surges while turnover breaks £200m”
Travers Smith has suffered one of its biggest financial setbacks due to the coronavirus pandemic, recording an 11% slump in net profit and a 20% fall in profit per equity partner (PEP), its provisional results revealed.
The provisional figures, announced on Thursday (30 July) show a 1% revenue drop to £160.9m from £162.5m last year, stymying a decade-long run of uninterrupted turnover growth. PEP fell to £1m, with the results being adversely affected by a reporting period that ran to the end of June, rather than April, giving the firm greater exposure to the pandemic downturn. Continue reading “‘Not out of the woods yet’: Coronavirus puts the kibosh on Travers’ decade of revenue growth amid profit dive”
While few global firms expect to emerge unscathed from the Covid-19 crisis, Eversheds Sutherland (International) has nevertheless followed many peers in reporting robust revenue and profit increases in the 2019/20 financial year.
The figures released on Thursday (30 July) for the non-US parts of the business struck a bullish tone, with revenue up a solid 8% to £592m from £548.8m last year and a net profit increase of 5% to £108.8m
Profit per equity partner (PEP) also saw a slight 2% uptick to £902,000 on the back of last year’s 9% uptick to £886,000.
Whereas chief executive Lee Ranson (pictured) was last year nervous of a market slowdown as a result of Brexit, what he called ‘the uncertainty barometer’ has now shifted towards gloomy thoughts of a pandemic fallout.
‘These are a good set of results which were delivered against a challenging global economic and geopolitical landscape, compounded in the last two months of the financial year by Covid-19,’ said Ranson in a statement.
‘Our strategy has continued to drive strong growth while allowing us to make a number of significant investments across the year, specifically in people, property and our core and client-facing IT offerings.
‘While the business has responded well to the challenges and uncertainty created by the pandemic, and adapted quickly to the changing priorities and needs of our clients, there is no doubt that the year ahead will be testing for us all given the high levels of uncertainty across the world,’ Ranson concluded.
The sentiment is one that would be circulating around the Square Mile if law firm leaders were not all stuck at home. With the pandemic appearing only on the tail end of the 2019/20 reporting period, it is anyone’s guess as to how it will pan out in the financials for the current year.
nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk
Watson Farley & Williams is the latest City firm to post robust revenue and profit figures in the face of adversity in the 2019/20 financial year.
The firm said yesterday (29 July) that fee income was up 4% to £179.6m from last year’s £172.3m as profit per equity partner (PEP) saw a 3% uplift to £577,000 from £562,000. Profit was up a respectable 13% on last year to £53.7m from £47.5m, capping off a bullish set of results. Continue reading “WFW not ‘singing from the rooftops’ as it defies pandemic blues to post revenue and profit uptick”
Disputes specialist Stewarts has seen double-digit revenue growth for two years on the spin, posting an 11% increase in turnover to £77m for 2019/20, up from £69m from the previous financial year when it increased just shy of 11%. Profit per equity partner, meanwhile, saw a modest 3% increase to £1.25m; a needed rebound after the figure plummeted 16% in 2018/19.
The latest results show Stewarts’ continued recovery after its 2017/18 setback , where ‘non-linear’ income patterns from contingency work accounted for revenue falling by a fifth. The broader picture is that revenues over a five-year period have enjoyed a healthy uptick – rising almost 46%. Continue reading “Stewarts steels itself for the hit as it reports solid financials for 2019/20”
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has become the latest international firm to post resilient turnover growth in the face of the Covid-19 crisis but increased operating costs and a drop in productivity saw profits tumble in 2019/20.
Revenues at the Anglo-Australian giant increased 2.5% to £989.9m, up from £966m last year when revenues grew 4%. However, profits saw a significant decline, falling almost 8% to £283.2m while profit per equity partner dropped almost 10% to £857,000 from £949,000 last year. Continue reading “Resilient HSF closes in on £1bn revenue but profits fall with increased operating costs”
Clyde & Co has notched up its 22nd consecutive year of revenue growth, the firm’s latest financial results show, albeit with a slower turnover increase than the previous financial year and a modest dip in profit following internal investments.
Firmwide revenues were up 3% from £611m to £627m in 2019/20, a decrease on last year’s pacier 11% growth rate. Despite the reliable revenue growth, profit at the firm fell 5% to £143m ‘due to increased investment,’ while profit per equity partner (PEP) likewise dipped 4% to £665,000. Continue reading “‘Stable and consolidated’: Clydes posts steady revenue growth but profit hit after year of investment”
