International firms Eversheds and Simmons & Simmons today reported higher profits, though the former admitted 2014/15 had been a 'mixed bag' of a year.

In the results season's busiest week, Eversheds declared net profits up 2% to £87.5m for the year ending 30 April, on revenue of £381m which was ‘broadly flat’ compared with the previous year. 

Profit per equity partner increased by 2%, to £740k, and the firm’s net cash position ‘saw a significant improvement to £23m’, the firm said. 

It reported strong revenue growth from Eversheds Consulting (57%) and in the Middle East (19%), with the firm’s London headquarters ‘delivering a third year of successive growth’.

Chief executive Bryan Hughes said in a statement: ‘Last year was definitely both a mixed bag and a game of two halves. We made a slow start to 2015 as two major projects came to an end with the half-year seeing a 3% year-on-year decline in revenue.

‘Trading activity picked up in the second half of the year with a 3% uplift against prior year for the period.  

‘We would obviously have preferred some top-line growth, however as we continued to make significant investment, particularly in our international operations, and we saw an improvement in the two key measures of net profit and our cash position we are more than content with this result.’

Simmons & Simmons, meanwhile, posted a more eye-catching 17.4% rise in PEP to £650,000. Fee income climbed 8% on 2013/14 to £290.1m, while net profit increased by 26.6%.

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