EMW´s £50m ambition starts with London tie-up
EMW´s £50m ambition starts with London tie-up" />Milton Keynes firm EMW Law has merged with London ;international corporate boutique Picton Howell, taking the first step in its radical expansion plan.
The merged firm, called EMW Picton Howell, plans to make three more linkups and quadruple turnover to £50m by 2013.
EMW chief executive Joy Vollans said the firm hopes to create a “hub and halo” model, ;with ;Picton’s London base surrounded by EMW’s office in Milton Keynes, which will be bolstered via mergers with firms in Gatwick, Chelmsford and Reading.
Vollans added that, in a normal market, she would expect another merger within the next year.
Picton is an international corporate boutique with five partners and a turnover of £2m, of which around a third is generated from India, a third from the EU and around 10 per cent from the Gulf region.
Every year around 20 per cent of Picton’s turnover is generated by one large deal and the merger with EMW was designed to provide revenue stability as well as the capacity for larger work.
The combined turnover of the two firms for 2007-08 was £12.3m.
The firm, which plans to grow its London office to 30 lawyers via lateral hires, will seek external investment when regulations allow. EMW chairman Ian Morris has already been in talks with private equity contacts to draw up a
plan of how to best seek investment.
