Knight: Market continues to move in our favour
Listed firm Keystone Law has unveiled strong interim results, with revenues up 30% and profits 35% to back up a share price that has more than doubled in less than a year.
In the six months to 31 July 2018, revenue was up from £15m to £20m and profits from £1.7m to £2.3m.
Lawyer recruitment “continues to be strong”, it told the stock exchange, with 132 applicants during the six months, seven more than the same period last year, and lawyer numbers growing by 31, to 297 overall.
Keystone, which listed on 27 November 2017 [1] at 160p, has been the fastest-growing legal stock [2] over the past year, trading at 363p at the time of writing. It has been as high as 379p.
The firm is one of the pioneers of the ‘platform’ model, which supports its consultant senior lawyers in running their own practices.
Chief executive James Knight said: “Keystone has a clear first-mover advantage and our unique business model is underpinning our strategy to drive forward the delivery of UK centric organic growth.
“The recruitment activity in the period further demonstrates that our increasing reputation as a leading, quality-centric mid-market law firm makes Keystone an attractive proposition for good-quality lawyers; thus, driving our expansion and enabling us to exploit the market opportunity which exists in the UK legal services sector, which we believe is ripe for disruption.
“The performance of the existing lawyers, together with the recruitment activity during the first half and the strength of the recruitment pipeline at the half year all serve to underpin management’s confidence in the second half.”
Mr Knight told investors that the market “continues to move in our favour”, with Keystone’s business model becoming increasingly accepted by “the mainstream legal establishment”.
He also reported that, at the company’s AGM, shareholders approved the introduction of a long-term incentive plan to incentivise key management to deliver “superior returns”.