Halliwells acquisition boosts Hill Dicks' first-half turnover by 10 per cent

The firm brought in around £48m, according to managing partner Peter Jackson, who said that around 60 per cent of the growth was related to the firm hiring a 129-member team from Halliwells that included 30 partners (16 August 2010).

Hill Dickinson was in protracted negotiations to acquire the entirety of Halliwells from April 2010, but lost out to Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, HBJ Gateley Wareing and Kennedys.

Instead it acquired the Liverpool office in July of this year, including the then managing partner of Halliwells Jonathan Brown, who has brought over clients including Eddie Stobart and Everton Football Club.

“This puts us on course to hit £100m [at the year end],” said Jackson. “We’ve only had the Halliwells bit for about three months; we’d expect to see more [growth] out of that.”

Jackson added that the pre-existing corporate teams in Manchester and Liverpool had seen “a lot of activity’, including acting on the refinancing of Ethel Austin Property Group, on which partner Michael Jones acted.

Hill Dickinson has a long history of growth through mergers, having acquired Chester firm Wayman-Hales to launch in that city in 1997, property specialists Bullivant Jones in 2004 and London-based shipping firm Hill Taylor Dickinson in 2006, while the acquisition of commodities boutique Middleton Potts last July boosted 2009-10 revenues by about £3m to £87m.