Going Public Pays: 56% Profit Increase Follows Law Firm's IPO
The eye-popping expansion of an Australian plaintiffs firm that went public last year in order to fund its acquisitions of other law partnerships has also led to an eye-popping increase in its revenue stream.
Slater & Gordon reports that its overall half-year profits are up 56 percent since it sold about a third of the firm to nonlawyer shareholders in an initial public offering in May. Today, the firm upped its estimate of annual profits for its 2007-2008 fiscal year by about 12 percent, to $67.6 million ($73.5 million in Australian dollars), according to the Age and the London Times.
“The company on Friday booked a net profit for the first half of fiscal 2008 of $6.9 million,” the Age adds.
Slater & Gordon is believed to be the first law firm to go public, which is now legal in Australia and will soon be in the United Kingdom. The firm, which has acquired six other law shops since its May 2007 IPO gave outside investors control over about a third of its shares, is being “closely watched by law firms in England and Wales, which were given the green light to seek external funding or to float by the Legal Services Act,” reports the Lawyer.
Prior coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “IPO Funds ‘Eye-Popping Expansion’ of Australian Plaintiffs Firm”
