Slater and Gordon slips to $10.3m H1 loss

Slater and Gordon has slipped to a $10.3 million first-half loss after a fall in income from the law firm's personal injury unit.

Slater and Gordon slipped to a $10.3 million first-half loss

Slater and Gordon slipped to a $10.3 million first-half loss after a fall in personal injury income. (AAP)

Slater and Gordon has slipped to a $10.3 million first-half loss after a fall in income from the law firm's personal injury business.

The firm had posted a $141.3 million net profit in the first half of 2018, although that figure was inflated by the $211.2 million gain from the sale of its UK business.

Its loss from continuing operations for the six months to December 31, 2018, narrowed to $8.2 million, from $21.4 million in the prior corresponding period, as the company trimmed costs amid the overhaul necessitated by a disastrous UK expansion.

Total revenue and other income from continuing operations slipped 12 per cent to $75.1 million, with improved class action revenues partially offsetting the reduced income from personal injury.

Chairman James MacKenzie said the results announced on Tuesday showed the work undertaken to stabilise and transform the company, which lost billions, flirted with bankruptcy and became embroiled in shareholder class actions over its UK woes.

"The business now has a simplified operating model and a clearly defined service offering, and we are now in a position where we are focused on the future and growing our core services," Mr MacKenzie said.

"Undoubtedly these results show that there is still work to do to continue to improve but they also show that we are heading in the right direction."

In a separate announcement on Tuesday, Slater and Gordon said all but one of the senior lenders who participated in its December 2017 refinancing would be able sell their shares from Wednesday.

The company said that, other than Anchorage Capital Group, the lenders' shares would come out of voluntary escrow.

Shares in Slater and Gordon - worth as much as $8.07 in April 2015 before shedding more than 95 per cent of their value prior to a 1-for-100 consolidation in December 2017 - had dropped 12.3 per cent to $2.22 by 1518 AEDT.


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Source: AAP

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