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20 May 2026 07:00
Knights Group Holdings plc
("Knights", the "Company" or the "Group")
Full Year Trading Update
Strong revenue and profit performance, with double-digit organic growth in the second half
Knights, the national legal and professional services business, today issues a trading update for the year ended 30 April 2026 which anticipates:
A 28% increase in full year revenue to c.£207m (FY25: £162m).Double digit organic growth in the second half (rising from 2.6% in the first half) meaning the Group achieved organic growth in line with its expectations for the full year.Underlying EBITDA¹ to increase by 19% to c.£51m (FY25: £43m) with Underlying PBT¹ increasing by 18% to c.£33m (FY25: £28m).The Group maintained its disciplined approach to working capital management throughout the year, with debtor days² of 30 at 30 April 2026 (FY25: 31 days), supporting strong underlying cash conversion. The Group maintained a robust balance sheet position, with net debt³ expected to be c.£65.4m at year end (FY25: £64.8m), after c.£17m of net cash paid in relation to acquisitions.
Knights continues to attract high calibre professionals through its national scale, a growing reputation, its market-leading resources, location network and expertise in the UK regions; alongside its unique collaborative culture. Annualised churn4 has remained low.
In line with its value-accretive acquisition strategy, Knights completed the acquisition of Birkett Long LLP and Birkett Long IFA LLP in June 2025 and Rix & Kay LLP in August 2025, further strengthening its presence in the South East. Having established Knights' first presence outside England, in Cardiff, organically, we added to the team via the acquisition of Le Gros Solicitors Limited in August 2025. These and prior year acquisitions have all performed well.
The Group is actively assessing acquisition opportunities, with a healthy pipeline. We continue to progress the previously announced discussions with Moore Barlow LLP.
David Beech, CEO of Knights, said:
"Knights has delivered a strong financial performance in FY26, driven by organic growth, our successful acquisition strategy, and the sustained benefits of our differentiated business model, all underpinned by disciplined execution led by our expanded management team.''
Knights expects to announce its full year results on 6 July 2026.
Notes
1 Underlying EBITDA excludes non-underlying revenue and operating expenses including transaction and onerous lease expenses in relation to acquisitions, contingent acquisition payments, disposal of acquired assets, along with one-off restructuring and professional expenses, mainly incurred on acquisitions, through streamlining support functions or strategic reorganisations. Underlying PBT also excludes amortisation of acquired intangibles, non-underlying finance costs and a gain on disposal of a customer list from an acquired business.
2 Debtor days are calculated on a count back basis using the gross debtors at the period end and compared with total fees raised over prior months.
3 Net debt includes cash and cash equivalents, borrowings and acquired debt but excludes lease liabilities.
4 Churn is calculated based on the number of qualified fee earners who had been employed by the Group for more than one year. Churn is calculated taking the number of leavers in the above group over the financial year as a percentage of the average number of colleagues for the year. Churn excludes expected churn from acquisitions in the year of acquisition and the first full year post acquisition, redundancies and retirements. Retention is 100% less the churn rate.
Enquiries
Knights |
|
David Beech, CEO Kate Lewis, CFO James Sheridan, Chief M&A Officer / Investor Relations | Via MHP |
Deutsche Numis (Nomad and Broker) | |
Stuart Skinner, Kevin Cruickshank | +44 20 7260 1000 |
MHP (Media enquiries) | |
Katie Hunt, Eleni Menikou, Lucy Gibbs | +44 (0) 7884 494112 knights@mhpgroup.com |
Notes to Editors
Knights is a fast-growing, legal and professional services business, ranked within the UK's top 50 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 and Private Wealth services. It is focussed on key UK markets outside London and currently operates from 29 offices located in Beaconsfield, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Cheltenham, Chester, Colchester, Exeter, Kings Hill, Leeds, Leicester, Lincoln, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Portsmouth, Reading, Sheffield, Stoke, Teesside, Uxbridge, Weybridge, Wilmslow, Worcester and York.
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