Travers Smith

An exceptionally strong transaction flow during July and August 2011 put Travers Smith on the front foot in revenue terms; by the end of its financial year in June 2012 it had posted an 18 per cent increase in turnover to £83.8m, up from £71m. Note that the figure of £72m provided to The Lawyer the previous year included £1m of rental income, so the percentage uplift is calculated from the adjusted figure of £71m.

Happily for Travers its pipeline of mid-market deals maintained its momentum throughout 2011–12. The advice was largely for institutional clients such as Numis and Canadian bank Canaccord Financial, with the firm advising the latter on its £253m takeover of London mid-cap stockbroker Collins Stewart Hawkpoint not long after its attempted acquisition of stockbroker Evolution Group.

In a similar vein, high-profile insolvency mandates such as Blacks Leisure and Clinton Cards, with the former being sold to JD Sports following a pre-pack administration, enhanced its mid-market sweet spot.

Travers continues to invest strongly in its core corporate business, with two out of the firm's six promotions to partner occurring in that department in 2012, but is beginning to focus on looking after private equity investee companies, representing a slight shift away from purely transactional work.