Knights continues acquisitive streak with £5m deal
Fast-growing professional services group Knights has agreed a £5.3m deal for a commercial law firm to strengthen its presence in the South East.
The purchase of Mundays, a Surrey-based firm with 34 fee earners, comes one year after an £8.5m for ASB Law gave it its first foothold in the region.
Knights chief executive David Beech, who sold a £61m stake in the company in January after it underwent a secondary placing, said: “The acquisition of Mundays further builds our position in the South East, providing a strong platform from which to recruit talented lawyers that no longer wish to commute into London, as we continue to grow our national presence.”
Knights has been on a long acquisitive streak, which started to gather momentum ahead of its IPO in June 2018.
The Staffordshire-headquartered firm has taken over Shulmans, OTB Eveling, Fraser Brown, Turner Parkinson, Emms Gilmore Liberson, Spearing Waite, and ERT Law as it builds its presence in key regional markets.
It also revealed major office deals in Birmingham, Leeds and Nottingham last summer.
The acquisition of Mundays from its six equity partners is made up of an initial payment of £2.68m in cash and £1.25m in shares, with further cash payments of £0.75m and £0.63m over the next two years.
Neale Andrews, managing partner at Mundays, added: “Having built a strong and diverse client base over recent years, we look forward to being part of a larger group with the resources to execute on ambitious growth plans, offering exciting career opportunities to our team.”
Mundays, which is more than 60 years old, expects to deliver revenues of £6.9m in the year to July – £1m lower than the previous year.
Knights expects the business to contribute a profit margin of 18% once the firm is fully integrated and it has removed duplicate costs. The deal is expected to complete next month.
