UK-headquartered law firm Ince Group is not looking to make another major acquisition to grow its business.
Group chief executive Adrian Biles told TradeWinds that the shipping specialist firm is now seeking to build on the international platform created when law group Gordon Dadds took over Ince & Co in 2018.
"It was a large undertaking to do it, and it's taken a while for the various integration issues to work through, but I think we're pretty satisfied with where we are now," Biles added.
"We don't feel there is a need to do another large transformational transaction."
Biles said the way forward is by adding to teams and individual practices to realise shareholder value.
Ince has been busy adding staff in the UK, Gibraltar, Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Cyprus this year, and remains in the market for new recruits.
Recruitment as and when
"As and when people become available and want to join us, we'll be in a position hopefully to take them on," the CEO added.
"The things which were attractive for the people who have joined over the last 12 months or so ought to be attractive to people in other firms."
He mentioned the firm's transparent remuneration programme as one factor that is drawing lawyers in.
Ince has made some fee earners and support staff redundant this year, however, where business levels were weaker.
"What we're talking about was Covid and the effect it had on the business. The number of people involved was pretty small," Biles told TradeWinds.
Bouncing back
"The fact is there have been downturns in certain areas, but most of that is now bouncing back."
While international business has been expanding, the UK operations have been the hardest hit by Covid-19.
Biles called the various national lockdowns "pretty unhelpful" for business, saying that "flip-flopping between 'lock down, don't lock down' has caused a lot of uncertainty".
But he added that the business has been extremely robust and resilient through the period.
"The fears that we had at the very beginning in March have not been realised," Biles said.
Ince has not seen a real change in the type of legal rows caused by the pandemic, although there have been many charterparty disputes due to the pandemic preventing fulfilment of contracts.
Work is changing
But the coronavirus is changing the way lawyers work, with online meetings happening more often.
"Nothing really replaces face to face, but the amount of face-to-face activity will be less," Biles said.
"Covid won't be the last virus to hit the world and this idea of social distancing and wearing masks, being careful how you greet people, it's been a massive cultural change."
And the CEO said: "The idea that we'll all be back to bustling along on the Tube together or on buses together is pretty unlikely, certainly in western Europe."
Ince believes these changing working practices will mean the group has too much office space. There are break clauses with landlords in the next three years, giving the group the potential to achieve significant further operational cost savings.
Dividends returning?
Part of the plan for the company is to remove the "walls" between different parts of the business.
"It's already working. Where we have a client in shipping for example, we are then able to provide additional services to the client," Biles said.
He added that where dispute resolution or asset finance is being offered, it makes sense to be able to also offer employment services, consulting or cyber-security advice.
The London-listed group is not paying a dividend for the six months to 30 September, but has signalled it could make a payment to investors after its full-year results.
"Let me say we would really like to do that," said Biles. "We understand that shareholders expect us to do it, and provided that funds permit, we will do it."
He added that it is very difficult to do anything other than preserve cash at the moment while the company sees how the situation plays out.
Biles added that the UK government has indicated it could be March before restrictions are eased, for example.
"We are being careful, we do want to pay a dividend. We've just got to be a bit careful about what we say," the CEO said.
