Sellers: Looking to accelerate the number of cases taken on
The listed business that owns leading personal injury law firm Bond Turner saw its legal revenues soar 38% in the first half of this year as it gears up for further expansion.
Anexo Group – which runs a credit hire business alongside Bond Turner – said it was talking to its existing finance providers for an increase in its current debt facilities so as “to take advantage of the opportunities presented in both the credit hire and legal services divisions”.
The group’s revenues jumped 32% to £48m, with profit before tax up 41% to £8.9m. The legal services division delivered £22m of the turnover and £2.6m of the profit before tax, an increase of 209%.
Executive chairman Alan Sellers, a barrister, said: “Our existing finance providers have offered increased facilities, the details of which are currently being finalised.
“These will allow us to increase the deployment of our fleet and accelerate the number of new cases we take on, while enabling ongoing investment in high-quality litigators; thereby ensuring we maintain the relationship between new business and settlement capacity which has been the focus of the group since listing.”
The company said it expects profits to continue rising “as cash collections grow, the number of cases settled in court increases following the reopening of courts in May 2021 for face-to face-hearings, and vehicle numbers continue to reach record levels”.
As of last week, it had a record 2,023 replacement vehicles on the road.
The number of senior fee-earners employed as at 30 June rose by 28% to 175, as did the overall number of legal staff to 578, with the number of new cases funded up 39% to 4,208. Its new office in Leeds opened earlier in the year.
Last month, a takeover of Anexo by private equity firm DBAY Advisers was called off, but Mr Sellers said it retained a seat on the board as “a major supportive shareholder”.
The board is pay an interim dividend of 0.5p. Anexo’s share price went up 2% to 146p yesterday, just shy of its all-time high.
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