Gateley 'pleased' with first half progress

National commercial law firm and professional services group Gateley updated the market on its trading for the first half to 31 October on Monday, saying it was “pleased” with the performance of the business in the period.

The AIM-traded firm said its activity levels were “robust” and that, together with “particularly strong” growth in its corporate and property service lines, had yielded revenues up 10% over this period.

Its board said it saw activity levels remaining “solid”, and continued to invest in the business, taking advantage of growth opportunities as they arose.

Following similar investment last year, total staff numbers - including six further strategic lateral partner hires - had risen from 717 as at 30 April to 763 as at 31 October.

As a result, group EBITDA for the six months was in line with that achieved last year.

The board said it was “looking forward” to the second half of the financial year, and on the basis of current new business and work-in-progress levels, anticipated revenues in the second half to deliver a performance for the full year in line with market expectations.

“In line with our overall growth strategy, we have continued to take advantage of our brand recognition opportunities, service line enhancements and the delivery of excellent levels of client service,” said Gateley chief executive Michael Ward.

“Whilst we remain focused on seeking further acquisition opportunities, our ability to achieve organic growth by attracting talent and recruiting into growing service lines places us in a strong position for the second half of the year.”

Ward said the firm’s new ‘Global Mobility’ service line was its latest example of strategic investment which - alongside its existing clients and contacts - would enable its to capitalise on the opportunities which its expected to emerge in an environment of ongoing political and economic uncertainty.

“Gateley Capitus and Gateley Hamer are also performing well with a distinctive cross-sell that is proving attractive to clients.

“We continue to invest in our people through the release of further share incentive option schemes where participation remains strong across professional and support staff alike.”

Ward added that the board was also “extremely pleased” with the recent share offer, which was oversubscribed.

“We saw strong demand from existing and new institutions, as well as good internal take up from both longstanding employees and recent joiners.”