Baker & McKenzie has seen global revenues fall 4.3% to $2.43bn (£1.5bn) after currency fluctuations and a number of exceptional costs hit the global firm's bottom line.

Profit per equity partner fell 11.6% to $1.14m (£726k) from $1.29m (£821k).

The firm cited major investments, the strength of the US dollar and a one-off delay in billing and collecting due to rolling out a new technology platform as affecting its year end financials.

On a like-for-like basis, revenue, which last year stood at $2.54bn (£1.62bn), grew 2.2%.

Geographically, the EMEA region counted for 38% of revenue; Asia Pacific 25% and the Americas 37%.

Commenting on the fall in global revenue chairman Eduardo Leite said: "We were hit by the fluctuations and devaluation of many nations' currencies – when we transformed that revenue into functional currency dollars there is a decline, but in constant currency it's a 2.2% growth."

Over the course of the year Bakers opened new offices in Brisbane and Jeddah, a new Global Services Centre in Belfast and a joint operation in Shanghai with FenXun Partners.

It also invested in and rolled out a new financial and management information system, SAP, which allows the firm to more accurately monitor its performance across different geographies and practices on a real time basis. This caused a delay in billing and collection, which had a knock on effect on finances in the second half of the year, particularly notable given the firm accounts on a cash basis. Leite says the transition "delayed roughly half a month to three-quarters of a month of billing and collection". It expects to see this revenue brought in over the 2016 financial year.

Bakers singled out its antitrust and tax practices as strong performers over the year, both of which grew in dollar terms, while banking & finance, capital markets, mergers & acquisitions, private equity and real estate also put in a good performance.

It won positions on 48 major panels over the course of the year, while billable hours increased 5% year-on-year to 7.8m.

The firm hired 51 lateral partners and made 83 promotions, bringing the total partner count to 1500. Fee earner numbers meanwhile stand at 5,685, and total full-time equivalent staff number 11,336.

Over the last decade, firmwide revenue has grown 80% and PEP has grown 50%.

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