Knights Group’s growth continues as it breaks key profit barrier

Legal and professional services firm Knights Group reported yet another period of double-digit profit growth and revenue in line with ambitious expectations on Monday.

The Aim-listed firm, which works with Dunhelm, Barclays, and Easyjet, said its underlying profits before tax rose by 17.3 per cent in the year ended April 30.

Thanks to this growth, the firm reported an underlying profit before tax of £25.3m, above the key £25m mark for the first time.

Reported profit before tax rose by 28 per cent to £14.8m.

Knights’ solid performance came despite what it called a “challenging” market environment.

Revenue at the firm, which listed in 2018 raising £103.5m and specialises in work outside of London, increased six per cent from £142.1m to £150m.

During the first half of Knights’ financial year, the acquisitive firm picked up the likes of Baines Wilson and St James Law to improve its footprint in the North. The two targets were based in Newcastle and Carlisle.

It also expanded into corporate finance in April, entering a joined venture with the former Convex Capital management team to form Convex Corporate Finance.

Consequently, Knights’ net debt rose from £29.2m to £35.2m.

David Beech, Knights’ CEO, said: “Knights has delivered a good performance against a challenging market backdrop, reflecting the strength of our diversified service offering, and continued execution against our strategy, and building on our strong track record of profitable growth since IPO in 2018.

“We have diversified our service offering, won a number of new clients, sharpened our focus on operational excellence and made considered strategic acquisitions, bolstering our scale in the North, an important region.”