Slater and Gordon has reported an upturn in trading performance and raised £30 million in new money from its investment fund owners.
The national firm posted a pre-tax profit from continuing operations of £5.8m in calendar 2024, group accounts filed at Companies House show. That compares with a loss of £717,000 in the previous year.
Operating profit from continuing operations, described as one of the firm’s ‘key performance indicators’, climbed 225% on 2023, from £2.7m to £8.9m.
Income from continuing operations fell from £77.7m in the previous year to £72.4m, while net assets grew 7% to £101.3m.
Total headcount fell from 1,038 in 2023 to 888 at the 2024 year end. The company reported redundancy costs of £710,000 for 2024, down from £783,000 the year before.
In their strategic report, the firm’s directors hailed ‘significant progress’ in Slater’s financial performance. This reflects an ongoing strategy of moving away from lower-vale personal injury work and ‘repositioning the business to focus on higher value, more complex legal services, and investing in group actions’. Ongoing actions include acting for tens of thousands of Mercedes customers in the ‘Dieselgate’ emissions case.
In May this year the firm issued 7.2 million new ordinary shares valued at £30m. They were acquired by funds managed by Anchorage Opportunities Advisor which took control of the company. Since 2017 Slater has been ultimately owned by US hedge fund Anchorage Capital. 'New supplier/partner agreements have strenghtened the firm’s working capital position,' Slater said.
In 2023 the firm secured a new £33m five-year financing facility with litigation funder Harbour. At the end of 2024 it had drawn down £14.2m of that sum. In April this year Slater paid off in full outstanding loans from another funder, VFS Legal, which is in administration.
Nils Stoesser, CEO at Slater and Gordon, commented: '2024 evidences further validation of our strategy, as we continue to ensure we are well positioned to provide quality legal representation to our clients and deliver access to justice. This is against a backdrop of regulatory changes and well documented challenges within the court system, that make bringing a successful legal claim increasingly difficult. Improving the financial performance despite these challenges is testament to the incredibly hard work, dedication and expertise of our colleagues.
'The firm is well placed to continue to deliver for its clients and its stakeholders in 2025 and beyond.'
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