21 January 08
Merchant Legal LLP becomes first step in planned relaunch
AIM-quoted Merchant House Group plc is pleased to announce its association with the independent law firm Merchant Legal LLP as the first step in a major programme to broaden its range of services and boost operating margins by offering more services to the same clients.
Merchant Legal LLP will offer corporate and commercial legal services to Group clients and eventually to other clients.
It will be overseen by Alan O’Doherty, Sadhana Soni and Alan Gogbashian. Prior experience between them includes Herbert Smith and Clifford Chance amongst others.
Like other new units planned by Merchant House as part of the reshaping programme, it will operate on a revenue-sharing basis. This is in line with Group policy of heavily incentivising the teams and not therefore being responsible for salaries or significant overheads.
Alan O’Doherty, Senior Partner of Merchant Legal LLP said, ‘We welcome our association with Merchant House Group PLC and I believe that by offering legal services to Merchant House clients, they will enjoy high standards of service and receive advice tailored specifically to their requirements.’
Merchant House Chairman Martin Eberhardt said: ‘Over the next few weeks, we are intending to announce a series of other developments that will fit alongside one another to complement our existing corporate finance services. Building from our current foundations, we aim to broaden our client base, develop a stronger fund-raising capability, and continue to reduce overheads while maintaining high levels of service to our clients.’
Merchant House has already established an early joint-venture, Merchant House Finance Ltd, set up to provide clients with leasing and asset finance services. It intends to position all its new operations as complementary to its core activity of identifying under-valued, small cap investment opportunities.