CMS Cameron McKenna today announced preliminary details of its unaudited results for the financial year to 30 April 2010. Firmwide turnover was £214m, down 11% on the previous year (2008/2009: £241m) and average profit per equity partner was £453,000, 18% lower than last year (2008/2009: £554,000).
CMS as a whole achieved combined annual turnover of 737.5m euros for the 2009 calendar year, representing a slight decline of 7% on the previous year's total of 791m euros. Some CMS firms achieved strong performance, with CMS Hasche Sigle in Germany, for example, reporting an increase in profitability of over 10%. As evidence of closer cooperation on client work, over 50% of joint CMS pitches were won in 2009 representing, on average, work in five European countries. In the same period, more clients used CMS across a number of jurisdictions, with a 70% increase in the number of top clients in each firm engaging at least two of the nine CMS firms.
CMS Cameron McKenna's Managing Partner, Duncan Weston, commented on the results: 'Last year was a challenging period for us and many of our clients, and we anticipated at the beginning of the year that we would be affected by the financial downturn. This year's results also reflect the costs of restructuring our UK and Russian businesses and, over the two years of the downturn, our overall turnover has declined by 9%. In the past year, we have focused on disciplined cash management, taking a robust approach which has maintained a strong cash position into the new financial year.
The fundamentals of our business are extremely sound and our three year strategic review has set a clear direction, aligning our goal with the CMS vision to be the best European provider of legal and tax services, and confirming our commitment to developing the BRIC markets. Our sector specialist knowledge throughout Europe means that we have been able to provide strong support for our clients in a market that continues to be both highly competitive and challenging.
Our recently announced arrangement with Integreon, which will analyse all aspects of business services and assess the development of a shared service platform, will meet our goal of providing 'best in class' services to our clients. It also represents an innovative new business model for law firms which could be of industry-wide significance.'
Highlights of 2009/2010 include:
- The firm announced the appointment of 23 new partners in 2010, including 7 in the UK, reflecting a strong performance in 2009. Throughout the year, the firm has made nine lateral hires in the fields of Corporate, TMT and Commercial.
- The firm won a number of significant awards during the year:
The Central and Eastern Europe Law Firm of the Year Award in the 2010 PLC Which Lawyer? Awards for the second year running and the third year in total
The 2010 Legal Business Award for TMT (Technology, Media and Telecommunications) Team of the Year
The 2010 Lawyer HR Award for Most Innovative Recruitment Initiative
The Acquisitions Monthly 2010 Mid-market Law Firm of the Year Award
The FT/mergermarket 2009 Mid-market Legal Advisers of the Year Award
The ACQ Global Awards 2009 Central and Eastern Europe Private Equity Law Firm of the Year
The Pension and Investment Provider Awards 2009 Pensions Law Firm of the Year
- CMS now ranks 6th in the most recent Global Arbitration Review annual ranking of top 100 law firm arbitration practices. This is a notable improvement on last year’s ranking of 14th in the world.
- In 2009, CMS has significantly improved its performance in key league tables. In the UK, the firm ranks No 1 in the Thomson Reuters European mid-market M&A league table (mid-market by volume); and CMS as a whole is ranked No1 in Europe, Eastern Europe, France and Germany respectively (mid-market by volume).
Notable deals and achievements:
- The firm was one of three to be appointed to the BT Global Panel of legal advisers.
- Advised Kulczyk Holding in the sale of a minority interest in the Kompania Piwowarska S.A. brewing business, in exchange for 3.8% of SABMiller plc, in a deal valued at approximately £750 million.
- Advised Informa on a corporate redomiciliation involving a listing in London of a New Jersey incorporated Swiss tax resident holding company established by a scheme of arrangement and a £255 million rights issue. This restructuring saw Informa become the first UK-listed company to redomicile to Switzerland, and the first UK company to announce a simultaneous corporate redomiciliation and major capital raising.
- Advised key client, Gdańsk Transport Company S.A. (as a concessionaire and borrower), on the financing of Phase Two of the A1 Toll Motorway Project in Poland. The total cost of Phase 2 of the project was EUR 1.07 billion and this project is one of the largest infrastructure investments in Poland.
- Advised construction company, Vinci, and their Russian partner N Trans, reaching financial close on the project to build and operate the first section of the Moscow - St. Petersburg toll road (15-58 km). This is the first concession project (under new federal law) to be implemented in Russia. The project value is around US$2 billion and is one of the major PPPs (Public Private Partnerships) in Russia and CEE.
- Advised longstanding client Rumford Alliance in the partial exit of their cable TV portfolio to EQT V, a European private equity fund. This was one of the largest and most complex transactions this year in Central and Eastern Europe for 2009.
- Advised long standing client, National Grid, on a variety of high profile and cutting edge matters throughout the year, including their Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects and the offshore transmission regime. The work on CCS projects included advising on their successful participation in the Government's competition to fund a commercial scale CCS demonstration project, and their successful participation in securing EU level funding for the Hatfield CCS project.
- Advised Simple on the £240 million sale of Simple Health & Beauty (Simple) from Duke Street, the UK based private equity group, to Alberto-Culver Company, the listed US-based developer, manufacturer and distributor of branded consumer products worldwide.
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