The first legal service firm to list on London Stock Exchange, DWF, has reported that its net revenue increase by 14 per cent over the last year, 10 months on since it went private.
DWF’s net revenue increased from £380m to £435m for the year ending 30 April 2024, to which CEO Sir Nigel Knowles said it was “an excellent performance”.
All three divisions achieved increases in net revenue but its insurance services saw the fastest growth at 24 per cent. The group said this was driven in part by it entering the Canadian legal market with the acquisition of Vancouver-based Whitelaw Twining.
Elsewhere, its commercial services grew by eight per cent organically and legal operations also grew by 8 per cent.
DWF secured more than 30 legal panel appointments/reappointments including with BT, Tesco, Aspen Insurance and Cadent Gas.
Back in March 2019, DWF was listed on the London Stock Exchange, with a £366m valuation and offer size of £95m leading it to become the UK’s largest listed law firm at that time.
Despite that, last October, private equity firm Inflexion took DWF private following its £342m takeover of the group.
Knowles noted that “at the time [of deal], we said that Inflexion’s investment would help us to go faster in the pursuit of our strategic goals and we are already seeing that come true.”
He noted its first M&A transaction since the deal with the acquisition of an Australian claims management business, Proclaim. In addition, its roll out of AI tool, Microsoft Copilot, to all its colleagues.
“I am encouraged by the start the group has made to the new financial year and we anticipate further expansion-driven corporate activity in 2024,” he added.