Manchester-headquartered international law firm DWF is considering an IPO on the London Stock Exchange that could value the firm at up to £1 billion.

In response to media speculation, DWF issed a statement that said: “To enable us to deliver on our strategy and for us to better serve our clients through an increasingly international and differentiated offering, we have plans to increase our investment in information technology and Connected Services.

“The current corporate structure of our business continues to work very well and has enabled us to deliver our key business objectives with record growth this year – but as a business which is committed to ‘doing things differently’ it is also important to consider alternative structures which can set us apart from other legal businesses.

“To that end, we have been considering a number of strategic options for our business, including the possibility of an IPO on the London Stock Exchange.

“If we were to proceed with an IPO, we believe that it would enable us to achieve our strategic objectives more quickly, while also enhancing our ability to attract and retain the best talent and to incentivise our people by aligning them through offering ownership within the business.

“We are focused on an IPO, however, a number of options are available to us, and we can still continue to build on our success to date, with the support of our clients, under our current structure.

“For the time being, it is very much business as usual for us, our clients and our business partners as we continue to focus on delivering the excellent service which our clients have come to expect of us.”