Pinsent Masons posts 5.5% revenue hike but growth slows on last year

Pinsent Masons grew revenue by 5.5% in the last financial year and profit per equity partner (PEP) by 2.2%.

The increases took the firm’s revenue for the year ending 30 April 2016 to £382.3m, and PEP to £550,000.

The results mean Pinsents joins an expanding list of firms reporting slower growth in revenue and profit in 2015-16 compared with a strong 2014-15.

In 2014-15, Pinsents’ turnover climbed 12% to £362m, from £323m in 2013-14, with PEP soaring 33% from £403,000 to £538,000.

Speaking to Legal Week, senior partner Richard Foley said he was “pleased to have put that amount of growth on the back of what was such a strong year last year”.

He attributed the slowdown in growth rate to an increase in investment during the year.

“We had very good profit and turnover last year because we had a very investment-light year,” he said.

He contrasted that with 2015-16, saying : “We have never had a year where we have invested as much as we have this year.”

He also described 2015-16 as a “tumultuous year for businesses” and said:  “In May 2015, we were all worried about Grexit and the eurozone crisis. Since then, we have had increasing evidence of China’s slowdown, we have had the fall in oil price and obviously the last few months we have had fears about Brexit.”

In the last financial year, the firm launched an energy-focused office in Duesseldorf, with a four-partner team from KPMG and one partner from local firm Hoffman Liebs Fritsch & Partner.

The firm plans further expansion in Duesseldorf, with plans to add life sciences and technology teams and also plans further expansion in Munich, where it launched in 2012 with a seven-partner team.

Pinsents also launched an infrastructure-focused offering in Australia during the 2015-16 financial year, with new offices in Sydney and Melbourne that, according to Foley, have exceeded their financial targets.

The Australian operation currently has seven partners, with plans for further growth.

Pinsents is also plotting further expansion in Asia, where it launched an oil and gas practice in Singapore during the last financial year with the hire of partners Ashley Wright and Steve Potter, from Norton Rose Fulbright and Jones Day respectively.

Panel wins for Pinsents during the last financial year include appointments or reappointments for outsourcing businesses Capita and Serco, ports group Peel Ports, publisher Pearson and housebuilder Galliford Try.

Other firms to announce their 2015-16 results so far have also shown slowing growth. Nabarro, which announced its results last week, posted a 3.5% increase in turnover – down from 8% the year before.

Watson Farley & Williams and RPC also both saw growth slow in the last year. Watson Farley posted a 5% increase in revenue compared with  8% in 2014-15, while RPC grew revenue by 6% in 2015-16 compared with 12% the previous year.