Clifford Chance today announced its results for the year ended 30 April 2013.
- Revenues were £1,271 million (USD1,995 million; EUR1,551 million), broadly flat year on year excluding the effect of exchange rate movements (in Sterling, down 2%)
- Partnership profit was £404 million (USD634 million; EUR493 million), 6% lower than the previous financial year
- Profit per equity partner was £1 million (USD1.5 million; EUR1.2 million), 9% down on the previous financial year
- New office opened in Republic of Korea and ground-breaking new arrangements announced in Saudi Arabia and Singapore.
Managing Partner, David Childs, commented:
“This is a solid set of results. Given the difficult operating environment for many of our clients and the depressed transactional markets, we are pleased to have maintained revenues last year. We are living through an extended period of choppy conditions in global markets. However, our continued investment across geographies and practices has given us a broad-based business with the resilience to weather this volatility, as shown by our results over recent years as well as the major mandates and awards that we have been proud to win.
Our global Litigation and Dispute Resolution practice put in another excellent performance, with roles on some of the most high-profile and complex matters around. Our Banking and Finance practice continued to flourish, delivering some of the best quality and most innovative work in the market. We were also pleased to rank highly in the global M&A league tables, with our teams advising on several of the year’s most significant transactions.
During the year, we announced market-changing initiatives to broaden and deepen our offer in Singapore and Saudi Arabia, as well as opening an office in Korea. Our Continuous Improvement initiatives also went from strength to strength, reinforcing our commitment to efficiency as well as excellence in our client service.
This year has started well, with noticeable signs of an upturn in transactional volumes. While we may not yet be seeing a large number of high-value deals, there is a sense of increased market confidence. Our targeted investment in the right expertise and resources means that we continue to be well placed to provide our clients with the guidance and support they need to navigate a fast changing global economic and regulatory environment.”
Highlights for the year included:
- Global expansion:
- First UK and first top-tier international firm to open in the Republic of Korea
- Formal Law Alliance with specialist litigation boutique Cavenagh Law, making Clifford Chance the first international firm with a full service, integrated law practice in Singapore
- Approvals received for the establishment of the first fully integrated local lawyer-foreign lawyer partnership in Saudi Arabia.
- We acted on a series of high profile mandates, such as advising: the sponsors and financial advisers on Glencore International’s acquisition of Xstrata; Anheuser-Busch InBev on the bank financing of its $20.1bn acquisition of Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo; Royal Dutch Shell on its $4.4bn acquisition of part of Repsol’s LNG portfolio; the Supreme Committee for Qatar 2022 for the FIFA World Cup projects; SAREB (the Company for the Management of Assets proceeding from Restructuring of the Spanish Banking System) on the divestment of EUR66bn of assets; as well as roles on a number of LIBOR related matters and on the Autonomy dispute.
- We won a series of major awards, including: Chambers Global International Law Firm of the Year; Chambers Law Firm of the Year for Europe, the Middle East, Belgium, China, France, Singapore and Russia; IFLR Asia International Law Firm of the Year; IFLR Financial Regulation Team of the Year; Latin Lawyer Deal of the Year.
- Further increasing our efficiency:
- Some 40 Continuous Improvement projects completed, with a further 40 underway – covering areas as diverse as enhancing due diligence processes for specific types of client transactions through to improving the reconciliation of inter-office payments across our network of 35 offices in 25 countries
- Over 250 of our lawyers have been trained in Lean Matter Management, a programme to help our legal staff incorporate the principles of Continuous Improvement into their day to day client work. This programme will be extended to another 400 lawyers by the end of this financial year
- Our Knowledge Centre for Transaction and Case Support in India supported Clifford Chance teams globally on 1,300 client projects for 263 partners across 26 offices, across all practice areas.
