Results released yesterday show a 2.3 per cent lift in revenue at A&O over the last financial year to £1.31bn, a slight slowdown from the 4 per cent lift to £1.28bn recorded in 2014/15. Meanwhile, profit per equity partner (PEP) stayed more or less flat over the year at £1.2m, while pretax profit inched down 1.4 per cent to £562m. The profit dip came down to IFRS accounting provisions for pensions and property costs, without which A&O reports that pretax profit would have remained flat. ‘The growth is steady but not spectacular – but it is when you see that we’ve grown by £230m in the last six years,’ commented managing partner Andrew Ballheimer. In particular, Mr Ballheimer praised efforts to diversify A&O’s practice and build strength in different areas: ‘The mantra of A&O being the finance firm of old is gone… We’re now a very well balanced business,’ he said. The firm has advised on more than 1,500 deals globally over the last year in M&A, debt and equity capital markets, loans and projects.
Sources: The Lawyer; Legal Business
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