Last checked at 21 Sep 2020 07:00
21 September 2020
Knights Group Holdings plc
("Knights", the "Company" or the "Group")
AGM Trading Update
Knights, one of the UK's fastest growing legal and professional services businesses, today holds its Annual General Meeting at 11.00am at Knights Plc's offices, The Brampton, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, ST5 0QW.
At the AGM the Group's Chairman, Bal Johal, will make the following remarks:
"The last financial year saw Knights deliver another year of strong cash generative, profitable growth with organic growth complemented by acquisitions, in line with our strategy to build the leading legal and professional services business outside London.
In the current financial year, the Board is pleased to report an encouraging recovery following the initial disruption from COVID-19. As previously reported, the Group experienced a circa 20% decline in new business in the early weeks of the current financial year. However, the level of instructions has steadily improved through July / August and into September. The Group is currently operating at a run rate equivalent to a circa 10% decline in new business compared to pre-COVID 19 levels and the Board expects this ongoing improvement to continue over the remainder of the year.
We are particularly pleased to have continued our strong momentum in recruiting senior level talent from traditional partnership models, many of which are Top 50 law firms, which we had previously stated would be our near term focus following the recent acquisition of a number of high quality firms. The recruitment of senior fee earners has continued to show strong momentum with 23 partners having already joined or accepted positions to join in the current financial year. We are also pleased to confirm that our recent acquisitions have been integrated ahead of schedule and are all performing well.
We anticipate that COVID-19 will continue to accentuate both recruitment and acquisition opportunities for our resilient business in the highly fragmented market for legal services outside London.
The Group confirms that it will provide an update on trading for the half year to 31 October 2020 on 24 November 2020, ahead of reporting its half year results in January 2021."
Ends
Enquiries
Knights | |
David Beech, CEO | via MHP Communications |
Numis (Nominated Adviser and Broker) | |
Stuart Skinner, Kevin Cruickshank | +44 20 7260 1000 |
MHP Communications (Financial Comm) | |
Katie Hunt, Andrew Jaques, Rachel Mann | +44 20 3128 8794 knights@mhpc.com |
Notes to Editors
Knights is a fast-growing, legal and professional services business, ranked within the UK's top 100 largest law firms by revenue. Knights was one of the first law firms in the UK to move from the traditional partnership model to a corporate structure in 2012 and has since grown rapidly. Knights has specialists in all key areas of corporate and commercial law so that it can offer end-to-end support to businesses of all sizes and in all sectors. It is focussed on key UK markets outside London and currently operates from 13 offices located in Birmingham, Cheltenham, Chester, Crawley, Leeds, Leicester, Maidstone, Manchester, Nottingham, Oxford, Stoke, Wilmslow and York.