Law firm enjoys strong growth in first 12 months on Stock Market

DWF offices

Law firm DWF expects to see revenues grow by 15% in its first year of trading as a public company.

The firm has issued a trading update covering the first 12 months of trading on the Stock Market.

The business was valued at £370m when it launched in March last year.

DWF said it has continued to record strong revenue growth with revenue expected to grow by not less than 15%.

International has seen the strongest growth in the period with revenue increasing by more than 70%, while connected services saw growth in excess of 20%.

Insurance and commercial services also delivered strong organic growth of in excess of 5%, in line with guidance.

The Company’s EBITDA margin was in line with management’s expectations leading to good profit growth, in absolute terms, year on year.

This has been driven from improvement in divisional gross profit margins and in the cost to income ratio.

The company’s year-end net debt was in line with management’s expectations at £35.1m.

DWF increased the number of partners by 19 on a full-time equivalent basis for the 12 months since 1 May 2018.

DWF expects to pay a full-year dividend of £3m, subject to shareholder approval, in September 2019 and to pay further dividends thereafter in line with its stated dividend policy.

DWF has had a solid start to the new financial year and is confident that it will continue to deliver further revenue and EBITDA growth in line with its medium term targets.

Andrew Leaitherland, chief executive, said: “This has been another year of strong financial performance across our business, including good organic growth rates in our insurance and commercial services divisions and double-digit growth in connected services and International, providing a firm foundation on which to begin life as a public company.

“Our international business in particular has shown extremely strong revenue growth.

“In this new financial year, we have already built upon our success by delivering on an international expansion opportunity highlighted in our prospectus, through the transaction to acquire the legal services business of K&L Gates Jamka in Poland.

“Since our IPO in March, we have also further expanded in Australia through the acquisition of FT Adjusting, a Connected Services business, and the hire of seven principal lawyers from the Melbourne law firm, WARD Lawyers.”

Click here to sign up to receive our new South West business news...
Close