A specialist defendant firm has posted another year of higher profits under private equity ownership.
Turnover at north-west firm Keoghs climbed 7% to £115m in the year to 31 May 2023, while operating profits before exceptionals climbed 6% to £34.3m, accounts filed at Companies House show.
Profit before members’ remuneration and profit shares slipped from £30.7m to £29.2m. This reflected a rise in exceptionals arising from onerous leases and ‘the LLP’s policy to grow through acquisition of new work throughout the year’. The firm’s staff wage bill climbed £5m on 2022, to £52.6m.
Bolton-headquartered Keoghs, a top-50 firm with more than 1,200 fee-earners, became part of the Davies Group insurance business in 2020. Davies was acquired in 2021 by City-headquartered investment firm BC Partners.
In their review of the business, Keoghs’ directors state: ‘We continue to be well-placed to capitalise on the opportunities in the marketplace as the firm’s competitive advantage is focused on combining low-cost workflow processing with operational and process excellence, alongside deep technical expertise in relation to more complex matters.’
Keoghs has also continued to invest in technology as it seeks to meet its goal of being ‘the best-in-class specialist provider of dispute resolution services for the insurance industry’.
Keoghs’ LLP accounts also disclose that the law firm’s parent group has a £700m warchest for further acquisitions and a £90m revolving credit facility.
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