Insolvency giant’s revenues approach £140m, putting it on track to hit 2027 target

Evening in the City of London. Office buildings including The Shard, Scalpel, Swiss-Re Tower (Gerkin) and Cheesegrater

Revenues at professional services firm Begbies Traynor rose by 12 per cent to £136.7m, marking a “10-year history of continuous growth” for the business.

The company saw its revenue grow from £121.8m in 2023 to almost £137m in its last financial year, with its adjusted pre-tax profit rising to £22m.

Speaking to City AMRic Traynor, executive chairman, said the firm “saw growth across the vast majority of its service lines” as insolvency advice grew by seven per cent overall, while its real estate business, “which has been a strong performer over the past year”, grew by 26 per cent.

In the last financial year the company made four profit-enhancing acquisitions, which contributed £5m to increased reported revenue.

Although the company said net debt was lower than originally anticipated after taking into account acquisition costs and funding pre-tax profits through share purchases totalling £11.1m.

He stressed that bankruptcy practice would continue “at this level” until the end of this year and next year.

He noted: “If our new government can get its act together and get some economic growth going for us, we will start to see those numbers come down, but we still think they will be at the low end of the cycle (over 20,000) because that is part and parcel of a healthy economy.”

Traynor explained that the company had set itself a target of achieving a turnover of £200 million within the next three years.

“It will be faster if we find the right acquisitions. If not, we will focus on organic growth… about three years to get there.”

He noted that the increase would be the result of “different types of work” during the period, but explained that “at the moment, still more than half of our activity is related to insolvencies.”

“I think that by the end of this three-year period we will have less than half of defaults, and real estate and consulting services will develop more significantly,” he added,

Speaking about acquisitions, he noted that the firm has a “case pipeline” that it is currently reviewing that includes all insolvency advice and in particular the real estate area, but noted that it is “also open” to other service lines.

In December, Begbies completed the acquisition of national property auctioneer and Nottingham-based SDL Auctions for an initial consideration of £2.5m.