If any M&A boutique is going to pay well for work done this year, it is surely Robey Warshaw. After all, the three-partner firm accounted for 20.4% of the UK M&A market in the seven months to July. However, Robey Warshaw’s financial year runs from March to March and accounts just released show that the UK boutique’s 12 employees suffered a big pay cut in the year to March 2018.
Robey Warshaw has a reputation for paying very well. In the 12 months to March 2017, it employed 13 people and paid them each an average of £705k ($905k) including pensions and benefits. One year on, however, this was down to £500k, a drop of nearly 30%.
The pay cut didn’t just apply to the rank and file. In 2017, Robey Warshaw’s highest paid partner received £37m. Last year he got £12m (sob).
The cuts appear related to a collapse in both revenues and profits for the year to March 2018. The former went from £73m to £30m; the latter from £63m to £21m.
Robey Warshaw’s 13 staff will likely attribute last year’s comparative impoverishment to the vagaries of the M&A cycle and the risks of working for a single-focus firm with a few large clients. With luck, this year will prove more remunerative. In any case, Robey Warshaw’s three founders have more than enough to keep them going until 2019: Simon Robey, Simon Warshaw and Philip Apostolides shared profits of £60m for the year ending March 2017.
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