Market announcement / 9 Dec 2025

Half year results for the six months ended 31 October 2025

We are pleased to announce our unaudited results for the six months ended 31 October 2025 (the “Period” or “H1 26”).

Financial highlights

  • Group revenue up 9.3% to £94.3m (H1 25: up 5.3% to £86.3m); organic revenue growth of 8.6% (H1 25: 3.2%)
  • Revenue growth driven by increased fee earner utilisation of 89% (H1 25: 88%) and positive returns from prior patient investment and implementation of pricing and conversion strategy
  • Legal services revenue grew entirely organically by 10.9% (H1 25: 2.1%)
  • Revenue from consultancy services grew 5.5% to £27.1m (H1 25: £25.7m), of which organic growth was 3.2% (H1 25: 6.1%)
  • Underlying operating profit margin at 9.2% (H1 25: 10.5%), resulting from the pre-Budget Q2 slowdown in transactional services alongside ongoing patient investment
  • Underlying profit before tax of £9.5m (H1 25: £10.6m)
  • Net debt of £19.6m at the Period end, driven by acquisition consideration payments, working capital movements and EBT share purchases, with significant headroom remaining
  • Management is confident of meeting full year consensus expectations4
  • Proposed interim dividend of 3.3p (H1 25: 3.3p) per share
Headline and underlying H1 26 H1 25 Change
Group revenue £94.3m £86.3m 9.3%
Group underlying operating profit £8.6m £9.1m (4.8)%
Group underlying profit before tax1 £9.5m £10.6m (10.8)%
Underlying diluted EPS2 5.65p 6.63p (14.8)%
Net assets £71.1m £80.8m (12.0)%
Net (debt)/ cash3 £(19.6)m £1.2m  
Dividend 3.3p 3.3p -
Reported H1 26 H1 25 Change
Group profit before tax £6.3m £3.3m 90.4%
Group profit after tax  £5.0m £1.9m 160.8%
Basic earnings per share (“EPS”) 3.73p 1.44p 159.1%

1 Underlying operating profit and underlying profit before tax excludes remuneration for post-combination services, gain on bargain purchase, share-based payment charges, acquisition related amortisation and exceptional items
2 Underlying diluted EPS excludes remuneration for post-combination services, gain on bargain purchase, share-based payment charges, acquisition related amortisation and exceptional items. It also adjusts for the future weighted average number of expected unissued shares from granted but unexercised share options in issue based on a share price at the end of the financial year
3 Net (debt)/ cash excludes IFRS 16 lease liabilities
4 The Board understands that market consensus expectations for FY 26, based on the two analysts that have published research since 1st September 2025, are for revenue of £189.4m and underlying profit before tax of £23.8m

Strategic and post-Period highlights

  • Acquisition of Groom Wilkes & Wright (“GWW”) in September for an initial consideration of £5.73m, in-line with capital allocation policy targeting profit enhancing returns. GWW is performing ahead of initial expectations;
  • Deliberate management of churn resulted in average fee earner headcount reducing by 1.8% to 1,062 in H1 26 (H1 25: 1,081) whilst we continued to invest for margin-enhancing growth by:
    • welcoming nine laterally hired Partners; and
    • hiring a new legal services corporate team of eight people in Dubai and relocating our Middle East operation to Dubai International Financial Center;
  • Personnel cost managed such that increase is wholly as a result of Autumn 2024 Budget NICs increase;
  • EBT funded in-line with capital allocation policy to support our Restricted Share Award (RSA) Plan;
  • Achieved all 15 responsible business objectives set out in our 2024/25 Responsible Business Report and launched 15 new objectives in our fifth annual Responsible Business Report published on 6 August 2025.

Current trading and outlook

  • H1 26 outturn demonstrates strong organic growth from our ongoing investment in a diverse range of professional services
  • Overall activity levels ahead of H1 25 despite the material pre-Budget deceleration in transactional services activity during Q2
  • We estimate that pre-Budget transactional inertia impacted H1 revenue by circa £3m, which if delivered in H1 would have resulted in H1 margins consistent with full year expectations. We expect this inertia to unwind in H2
  • Recent organic investments in established services are generating strong returns alongside emerging returns from investments in new services and a strong performance from our latest acquisition
  • Continuation of patient investments in new services, new systems and in our enhanced offer in the Middle East
  • Our strong H1 performance leaves the Group well placed for H2. Management is confident of meeting full year consensus expectations

Commenting, Rod Waldie, Chief Executive Officer of Gateley, said:

“I am very pleased with the Group's trading performance in H1 26. Each of our Platforms grew revenue despite inertia in transactional activity, induced by pre-Budget uncertainty as we progressed through Q2, as compared with very strong transactional activity throughout Q2 FY 25. Overall, we are very pleased with the Group’s organic revenue growth (8.6%). This primarily resulted from, firstly, focusing on higher value work alongside the implementation of our previously announced enhanced pricing and conversion-to-fees policies and procedures and, secondly, solid returns from recent investments in some of our established, market-leading services. These strong organic improvements validate our ongoing patient investment in new systems and service lines and underpins our confidence in delivering margin expansion despite the shorter-term impact of pre-Budget inertia. Our balance sheet provides a strong foundation to further invest in both legal and consultancy services.

“As always, I would like to thank our clients for their support and our dedicated people for their ongoing hard work, commitment and can-do attitude.”

Read the full regulatory news update View and download the Interim Results for the six months ended 31 October 2025 Subscribe to receive future updates via email