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Half-year results for the period ended 31 October 2022 (HY23)

08 December 2022

DWF, the global provider of integrated legal and business services, has hosted 18 students for work experience in Edinburgh and Glasgow as part of the business' community education programme.

 

Group financial summary

 

HY23 HIGHLIGHTS

STRATEGIC HIGHLIGHTS

The Group continues to make good progress in line with its strategy:

OUTLOOK AND CURRENT TRADING

 • The strong trading in H1 is expected to continue in the second half of FY23, with a shift expected between transactional work and our more counter-cyclical litigation and regulatory practice areas.
As is typical, the second half is also expected to benefit from the higher weighting of revenues, in line with historical averages, whilst costs are flat or in some cases being managed downwards.
The Group remains on track to deliver adjusted PBT in line with market expectations, adjusted for an additional £1m of interest costs due to unexpected base rate increases.
The Board has approved an interim dividend of 1.6p per share, reflecting the stated policy of paying an interim dividend that is one third of the PY full year dividend.

Sir Nigel Knowles, Group Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"We are pleased with our strong first half performance, achieved against a challenging macro-economic backdrop. Net revenue is up by 3.4% and adjusted profit is in-line with a stellar prior year. We have won some significant mandates and retenders reflecting our deepening relationships with key clients and we have extended our capabilities, both through strategic M&A, including our recent transaction with Whitelaw Twining in Canada, and new partner recruitment.  
"This performance is thanks to the steps we have taken over the last two years to make our business more sustainable and future focused. We have defined a clear strategy built around integrated legal and business services and enhanced our core strengths, such as our expertise in insurance. 
"We are taking proactive steps to maximise efficiency in this economic environment. We are well underway with an efficiency programme, through which we aim to remove £10m to £12m of costs by the end of FY24.  This will enhance our efficiency as a business and support our strategy of pursuing profitable growth.  In line with our purpose, this will enable us to continue to deliver positive outcomes with our colleagues, clients and the communities in which we operate.
“As we look ahead, we see the benefits of having both a global footprint and an established but diversified set of services through which we can provide solutions to our clients.  Given the clear counter cyclical qualities of many of our services, such as our litigation and regulatory offerings, and the short to medium term benefit we will see through our efficiency programme, we maintain confidence in the outlook for the second half and beyond."


 
The person responsible for making this announcement on behalf of the Company is Chris Stefani, Group Chief Financial Officer.

For further information
DWF Group plc
James Igoe - Head of Communications                 
+44 (0)7971 783533
 
H/Advisors Maitland
Sam Turvey +44 (0) 782 783 6246 
Sam Cartwright

To view the full RNS click here

Further Reading