Burford starts to reap rewards as earnings rise higher again
BURFORD Capital, the litigation finance firm chaired by former Barclays chair Sir Peter Middleton, yesterday said surging investment returns helped deliver better profits last year.
The group, which primarily provides financial funding for litigation, said pre-tax profits rose 25 per cent for the year ending December 2013 to $42.5m.
“We’ve hit a point in our life cycle where we now have significant investment returns,” chief executive Chris Bogart said. “We’ve been growing the business steadily but sensibly every year.”
The company was founded four years ago and currently has about 30 employees. Its net return on the 25 investments in its portfolio is currently 52 per cent.
As cases in the core portfolio continue to resolve over time, Burford’s investment recoveries should increase at a faster rate than they have done to date,” RBC analyst Peter Lenardos said.