Dentons' UKMEA arm increased its bank borrowing by £3m in 2012-13, while partners' capital contributions fell by 53% to £2.8m in the same period.

Accounts filed with Companies' House also show revenue at Dentons UKMEA LLP – formerly SNR Denton UK LLP – dropped for the fourth year in a row to £142.8m, a year-on-year decrease of 1.5%.

Profit was also down, slipping by 10% to £28.3m. The firm blamed the profit dip to increased marketing and administration costs borne by its three-way combination with Salans and Fraser Milner Casgrain.

Dentons had previously declined to provide a geographical breakdown of performance. Last July it unveiled its first set of combined global financial figures in the wake of the three-way merger in March 2013. The firm reported combined revenues of £829.7m, placing it among the top 20 global law firms by total earnings.

Meanwhile, the accounts show a significant fall in headcount for the second year in a row, with fee earner numbers dropping from 471 to 435 and administrative and support staff numbers decreasing from 523 to 493.

This contributed to a non-partner personnel decrease of 7%, resulting in a 4% drop in staff costs to £72.8m.

The move is further evidence of the firm's efforts to strip out cost within the UKMEA business.

In 2011-12, fee earner headcount fell 9% against a saving of £7.1m for the UK LLP, while support staff numbers dropped by a similar proportion.

The member with the highest entitlement to profit stood at £564,000 in 2012-13, a 17% fall on the previous year's figure.

Despite the medium-term bank loan increase, and fall in members' capital contributions, bank loans and overdrafts due within one year did fall by £1.6m to £10.8m.