DAC Beachcroft and Shoosmiths announce revenue and profit increases

Insurance-focused firm DAC Beachcroft and national firm Shoosmiths have both grown revenue and profit in the 2015-16 financial year.

DAC Beachcroft’s revenue grew by 1.6% in the financial year ended 30 April 2016. The firm’s total revenue in 2015-16 was £202m, up from £198.9m in 2014-15.

Its provisional results also reveal that profit before tax grew by 9%, from £32m to £35m. Profit before tax per member rose 21% to £358,000, although partner numbers fell from the preceding year.

In 2015-16, the firm had an average of 232 partners, including 98 equity partners, compared to 2014-15’s average of 241 partners, of which 109 were equity.

In 2014-15, the firm’s revenue stayed static but profit per equity partner (PEP) grew by 17.9% to £310,000.

Speaking to Legal Week, DAC managing partner Pollitt said: “Priority number one is to get this business humming, which it always has been capable of doing. The results have given us a boost in terms of what we can do, we can build upon this again this year and once we have done that we might start going after more substantial top-line growth.”

He attributed the firm’s profit increase down to “good growth” in practices such as corporate and real estate. Pollitt also said the firm had pulled back from some lower priced work, particularly in the insurance sector.

In 2015-16, the firm’s net debt fell from £20m to £5m and lock-up days (the time taken to collect bills) fell by 4% to 143 days.

In July last year, the firm elected a new management team, with former insurance head Pollitt taking over in November from negligence expert Paul Murray as managing partner, and real estate partner Virginia Clegg replacing Simon Hodson the same month as senior partner.

In September, the firm launched an insurance-focused office in Miami, adding to its Latin America presence – it has existing offices in Mexico, Chile and Colombia.

Pollitt said the firm has plans to continue its Latin American growth, citing Peru and Costa Rica as potential targets.

In Asia, the firm has applied to Malaysian regulators to allow it to tie up with Kuala Lumpur-based firm, Gan Partnership.

Meanwhile, Shoosmiths has announced a 4% revenue increase to £107m and a 4% profit increase to £25.1m.

Claire Rowe, Shoosmiths’ chief executive, said: “These growth figures reflect the fact that we are building our business for the future.

“Shoosmiths has an ambitious growth strategy to take a larger share of the UK legal market and we have chosen to build our practice organically through carefully planned expansion of our teams and services across locations.”

Rowe noted that the firm has expanded in London, Birmingham and Manchester this year and has also continued investing in its “IT transformation programme”.