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Investec pitches external investment to top 50 UK law firms as ABS debate gathers momentum

It's great isn't it - someone waves a large enough carrot at some ignorant lawyers and like a Pavlovian sloth they move inexorably towards doom.... Just how many managing partners have seriously understood what it means to be listed on a public market remains to be seen. If Investec can educate our management teams on the risks and dangers ahead, so much the better but, at the moment, this seems to be too much of a naked attempt at fee generation at a difficult point in the IPO cycle. The lack of comparator businesses (aside from Tenon) also seems indicative that the concept of an IPO is being oversold. From what I have seen of a number of law firms and their ways of working, firms would be better suited to taking private equity investment and then, if they can handle that and understand the requirements of disclosure to the markets, public funds.

16-Mar-2010

2:32 pm