Davenport Lyons and HowardKennedyFsi (HKFsi) have begun talks over a merger which would create a £60m law firm on the fringes of the UK top 50.

The discussions begun after Davenport Lyons, which is based near London's Covent Garden, approached HKFsi – the product of last year's merger between West End firms Howard Kennedy and Finers Stephens Innocent (FSI).

A tie-up would create a firm with combined revenues of £62.5m, based on their respective financial results for 2012-13.

HKFsi confirmed the discussions, with a spokesperson for the firm saying: "We have been approached and are currently at the initial stages of talking to Davenport Lyons with a view to exploring the possibilities of a merger. We are at a very early stage in those discussions but we remain open minded as to what may come from looking at this in more detail.

"We remain committed to the vision of growing HKFsi, be it through bolt-ons, mergers or lateral hires and will look at all opportunities presented to us."

In a remarkably similar statement, a spokesperson for Davenport Lyons said: "We are currently at the initial stages of talking to Howard Kennedy FSI with a view to exploring the possibilities of a merger. We are at a very early stage in those discussions but we remain open minded as to what may come from looking at this in more detail.

"We remain committed to the vision of growing Davenport Lyons, be it through bolt-ons, mergers or lateral hires and will look at all opportunities presented to us."

HKFsi reported post-merger revenues of £40.6m in 2012-13, while profit per equity partner (PEP) stood at £129,000. The tie-up of Howard Kennedy and FSI went live in February 2013.

Davenport Lyons, meanwhile, posted revenue of £21.9m for 2012-13, down 11% on the previous year's figure of £24.5m, while PEP tumbled 12.5% to £197,000.