Field Fisher and LG moot £150m merger
Field Fisher Waterhouse (FFW) and Lawrence Graham (LG) are in the early stages of merger talks to create a £150m business that would bring the combined entity on the brink of the top 20 UK firms by revenue.
Matthew Lohn
FFW has confirmed that it is considering a tie-up with the City rival but that no deal had been put to partners yet and that a merger was just one of the possibilities.
An FFW spokesperson said: “It’s an option. A lot of firms are talking about [merging]. It’s on the agenda - we’re wanting to grow. They’re one of the firms that we’ve been speaking to.”
The spokesperson said the firm had also spoken to other firms about a merger, but declined to provide names.
Hugh Maule
LG managing partner Hugh Maule said in a statement: “I can confirm that Lawrence Graham and Field Fisher Waterhouse are evaluating a merger. This would meet our strategic objectives in terms of international expansion and strengthening our core practice groups and sectors. There would be significant benefits for our clients with few or no conflicts.”
LG said the merger would create a firm with 1,000 employees including over 200 partners and 440 lawyers.
The negotiations, first reported by legal website RollonFriday, are being led by managing partner Matthew Lohn on the FFW side. The timescale is currently unclear, but a deal is thought to be a way off.
A tie-up would gift FFW new offices in Dubai, Monaco and Moscow, while LG would add bases in Brussels, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Manchester, Munich, and Paris.
FFW is aiming to grow, with international strategy committee head Mark Abell standing down from the firm’s board last year to focus on teeing up global expansion (5 December 2011).
It turned over £94m in 2010-11 (25 May 2011), while LG brought in fees worth £59m in the same financial year (14 July 2011).
Neither firms have posted their 2011-12 turnover, but based on last year’s The Lawyer UK 200 the merger would propel the firm into 22nd place in the UK by revenue, behind Irwin Mitchell and Addleshaw Goddard but ahead of Wragge & Co. However, the spate of mergers in the past year has put the leaderboard into flux.
FFW also has a slightly higher profit per equity partner figure, with this standing at £510,000 in 2010-11, compared with £412,000 for LG (14 July 2011).
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Readers' comments (12)
Anonymous | 18-May-2012 10:28 am
Two struggling firms, two lots of property headaches. The Pinsents McGrigors deal is making the middle tier think that UK merger is the answer to their problems when the should be out looking for a Chinese firm to merge with.
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Anonymous | 18-May-2012 12:53 pm
How is FFW struggling?
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Anon | 18-May-2012 1:20 pm
Even at £150 million turnover the combined firm will still be terribly sub scale. However this would be a start and a sensible move in the right direction.
@ Anonymous | 18-May-2012 10:28 am - yes a merger with a Chinese firm makes a lot of sense, but in addition, not instead of this.
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Anonymous | 18-May-2012 1:27 pm
Or LG for that matter?
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Anonymous | 18-May-2012 1:38 pm
And how is LG struggling? And what are the property headaches exactly?
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Anonymous | 18-May-2012 2:19 pm
John Quinn's quote on the Squire Saunders / Hammonds merger would seem appropriate here:
"Two rocks that think if they hug each other tight enough they won’t sink."
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NJI | 18-May-2012 2:38 pm
LG have been criticised fairly recently for not offering anything "out of the ordinary," i.e. the firm has spread itself too thin with insufficient defined identity. As for property headaches, both firms have wildly different types of offices: one is flashy, modern, attractive, but half of the other is bordering on grotty. I can't see LG wanting to abandon its offices, but it won't have room for the FFW people. A merged firm with 2 standards of office will certainly be a headache for those involved.
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Anonymous | 18-May-2012 2:39 pm
I think LG need FFW a hell of a lot more than FFW need LG!.....
Unlike other recent tie-ups neother seem as 'hung up' about merging with US firms than others seem to. Maybe the Dewey's debacle has something to do with that!
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Anonymous | 18-May-2012 3:04 pm
Good to see FFW's rapid rebuttal squad out in force today. Quiet day, chaps?
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Anonymous | 18-May-2012 3:45 pm
No conflicts indeed! LG's property and corporate (ECM) departments are in a different class to FFW - but they lack much else bar a reasonable banking department focussing solely (so far as I can see) on property and a quirky (but far from great) litigation arm.
It would fill in a couple of blanks for FFW, including more far flung overseas offices - hence, it could work. However, really the pressure should be on ensuring better mandates and clients rather than merely pursuing size. As others have mentioned, overseas (asian) mergers would probably make more long term sense.
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