Hammonds' Europe profit halved in 2009-10, LLP results reveal

Profits from Europe, where the firm has offices in cities including Berlin, Brussels, Paris and Madrid, fell by 46 per cent from £6.7m to £3.6m.

Turnover in the firm’s European offices was also down, dropping 8 per cent to £23.1m.

Revenue in the UK dropped 5 per cent to £91.6m but profit rose 22.3 per cent to £30.2m. Turnover in Asia, where the firm has offices in Beijing and Hong Kong, rose 29 per cent to £4m.

Earlier this week it emerged that Hammonds’ Hong Kong office will split from the firm ahead of its merger with US outfit Squire Sanders & Dempsey (29 November 2010).

The firm managed to slash staff costs by 13 per cent in the last financial year, with the figure falling from £57.6m to £50.1m, while overall operating costs fell from £93.1m to £83m. The number of equity partners dropped from 76 in 2008-09 to 62 in 2009-10, though the number of fixed-share partners increased from 87 to 105. The highest-paid partner’s profit share rose 47 per cent to £499,610.

In the last financial year, which ran from 1 May 2009 to 30 April 2010, Hammonds’ overall turnover fell 4.6 per cent to £118.8, while operating profit was up 13 per cent to £35.7m.