THE acquisition of debt recovery specialist Yuill & Kyle helped bolster law firm MacRoberts' turnover in the year to the end of April, with the firm posting a three per cent increase to £18 million.

The rise takes the firm back to the level it was at in 2014/15, with £210,000 of the £552,000 increase coming directly from Yuill & Kyle.

Despite the bump in turnover, the acquisition did not impact favourably on the firm’s profitability figure, with the debt recovery business making a pre-tax loss of £176,000 during the four months it was part of MacRoberts.

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This did not impact on the business overall, however, with profits before tax and partner distributions rising by 6% to £5.3m.

That came after a 28% slide in profits in the previous year as a result of the firm being hit by £2m worth of advice on the Rangers tax case in the previous year not being repeated.

When he was appointed chairman of MacRoberts last week, Euan Duncan said that further growth is on the cards for the firm, with managing partner Neil Kennedy saying earlier this year that Yuill & Kyle was expected to be the first in a series of acquisitions for the firm.

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According to accounts filed at Companies House, the firm, which had £1m in the bank at the end of 2017/18, paid a total of £577,000 for Yuill & Kyle, £115,000 of which was in cash with the rest deferred.

In terms of remuneration, average partner profits rose from just over £116,000 to £129,000 year on year, while the amount paid to the highest earner rose by 9%, from £165,000 to £180,000.

That is some way off the £533,000 the firm’s top earner received two years ago, but that figure was inflated by a bonus paid for work on the Rangers case.