HCB closes in on Linder Myers takeover
ACQUISITIVE Midlands law firm HCB Solicitors has emerged as the favourite to take over troubled rival Linder Myers.
Solihull-based HCB, which has swallowed up a number of rivals in recent times, incorporated a company called HCB Linder Myers the day after the Manchester-based firm announced its intention to appoint administrators earlier this month.
According to The Lawyer, HCB Linder Myers has been listed as a private limited company, registered to a Solihull address, and is listed as active.
When Linder Myers – which has an operation in Shrewsbury – filed its intention to appoint administrators, managing partner Bernard Seymour said that the firm was in “positive negotiations” with a number of firms over either sale or merger opportunities.
The move would seem to make strategic sense for HCB which in November entered the North West legal market via the acquisition of six-office firm Widdows Mason, which covers Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Cheshire.
The North West acquisition brought the number of HCB offices to 16 including Solihull, London, Birmingham, Stratford upon Avon, Redditch, Lichfield, Walsall, Sutton Coldfield and Alcester, and the group’s annual turnover to more than £10m.
Mike Gahan, chief executive of HCB, said at the time of the Widdows Mason deal: “We have acquired eight law firms in the past three years and Widdows Mason is a natural progression for the HCB brand. It also opens up the north of England to further expansion.”
In October HCB expanded into the East Midlands by bringing Billson & Sharp, a two-office Leicester company, into its portfolio.
