TIDMBUR
RNS Number : 4276Z
Burford Capital
15 December 2017
This announcement contains inside information.
15 December 2017
BURFORD CAPITAL UPDATES ON FUND BUSINESS PROGRESS
AND ANNOUNCES EXPANSION AND REALIGNMENT OF SENIOR TEAM
Burford Capital Limited ("Burford" or "the Company"), a leading
global finance firm and investment management firm focused on law,
today reports on the strong progress of its fund business at the
one-year anniversary of its acquisition of Gerchen Keller Capital
("GKC") and announces changes in Burford's staffing and structure
that position the business to meet the continuing growth of the
legal finance sector.
Burford's fund business
Burford announced the acquisition of GKC, the largest fund
manager in the litigation finance sector, a year ago. That
acquisition provided Burford with the ability to access private as
well as public capital to meet the needs of its clients and broaden
the sources of funding to finance its continuing growth.
Successful acquisition
The acquisition has been a success. Burford rapidly integrated
GKC and now operates the business as a single unified platform. GKC
is now known as Burford Capital Investment Management LLC, which
serves as the US Securities and Exchange Commission-registered
investment manager for all Burford investment funds, including
those raised by GKC.
Fully integrated
Burford's industry-leading legal investment team, into which
GKC's staff has been assimilated, now operates on a single
cross-platform basis, reviewing all potential investments
regardless of their source of capital and managing all ongoing
investments. Burford uses a single Investment Committee to review
all commitments of new capital to any strategy.
$16 million in 2017 fund income already contributed
Financially, the funds business has contributed management fee
income and early performance fee income. In 2017, we expect to earn
approximately $13 million in management fees from the funds. In
addition, we expect approximately $3 million in performance fees to
be released in 2017, a figure larger and earlier than our original
expectations. The performance to date of the funds business has
exceeded our expectations at the point of acquisition.
In addition to that direct fund income, Burford has also
benefited from a further $2.9 million in income from the successful
resolution of an investment originally held on GKC's balance sheet
and purchased directly by Burford as part of the GKC
acquisition.
Early success from new complex strategies fund
We were pleased to raise a new $500 million fund for complex
strategies in June 2017. Our complex strategies investments have
already enjoyed early success. We have made six investments to
date, committing $311 million of capital, a more rapid pace than we
were originally projecting. One of the investments has already
resolved, generating $3.8 million in gross profit on an investment
of $22.8 million, for a gross IRR of more than 200%.
Other funds show multi-year financial potential
As to our other funds, 24 resolved investments in the three
Partners funds and associated sidecars have generated a 64% return
on invested capital to date with an average duration of 1.6 years,
producing a gross IRR of 52%. The three Partners funds presently
have 53 ongoing investments.
Burford's post-settlement investments in its credit
opportunities fund and associated sidecars have returned more than
$600 million to investors to date, with a gross IRR of 14% on those
lower-risk, shorter-duration investments and an average duration of
0.7 years.
Burford's management structure and staffing
Christopher Bogart and Jonathan Molot, respectively Burford's
Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, have both
renewed their employment agreements with Burford through the end of
2020.
As a result of the successful and rapid completion of the
integration of the fund business within the Group, the three GKC
principals (Adam Gerchen, Ashley Keller and Travis Lenkner) will
become Senior Advisers to Burford and continue to serve on the
Burford Investment Committee while stepping back from their
operating roles. In their new positions, they will continue to lend
their insights to the business while also being able to pursue
other ventures, although they will remain subject to non-compete
and non-solicitation agreements until December 2020 and a lock-up
on their Burford stock until December 2019.
Burford has been engaged in a program of continuous growth and
expansion of its industry-leading team, adding 22 new staff in
2017. Presently, we have a team of around 90, including around 40
experienced lawyers. Our team also includes a broad range of
multi-disciplinary experts, including former investment bankers,
asset managers, private equity professionals and hedge fund
managers.
Burford announces the following appointments:
-- Elizabeth O'Connell has been appointed as Burford's
Chief Financial Officer. Ms. O'Connell has been
a Burford Managing Director since its inception
in 2009, managing its investor relations function,
and more recently has been overseeing its finance
function. Ms. O'Connell is a Chartered Financial
Analyst. Following a career in investment banking
with Salomon Brothers, Citibank and Credit Suisse,
Ms. O'Connell served as the Chief Financial Officer
for Glenavy Capital LLC, a private investment vehicle,
and Churchill Ventures Limited, a listed investment
company.
-- Aviva Will has been appointed as a Senior Managing
Director with broad responsibility for Burford's
underwriting and investment management in its core
litigation finance business. Ms. Will has been a
Burford Managing Director since 2010 and runs Burford's
New York office. Ms. Will was previously Assistant
General Counsel at Time Warner Inc., where she managed
a portfolio of significant antitrust, intellectual
property and complex commercial litigation, and
was also the company's chief antitrust and regulatory
counsel. Prior to joining Time Warner, Ms. Will
was a senior litigator at Cravath, Swaine & Moore.
-- Emily Slater has been appointed as a Managing Director
and will oversee Burford's business development
activities with US law firms. Ms. Slater has been
with Burford since 2010 and has historically played
a senior role in Burford's investment process. Her
appointment to this new role reflects Burford's
continued expansion of its relationship with law
firms to provide innovative capital and risk management
solutions. Ms. Slater was previously a litigator
at Debevoise & Plimpton.
-- Katharine Wolanyk has been appointed as a Managing
Director and will oversee Burford's Chicago office
and its intellectual property business. Ms. Wolanyk
has been with Burford and GKC since 2015 and has
been instrumental in the integration of Burford
and GKC. Ms. Wolanyk has a wide range of legal and
business experience in intellectual property, including
serving as President and Chief Legal Officer of
Soverain Software, a lawyer at Latham & Watkins
and an engineer at Hughes Aircraft Company, and
has both law and engineering degrees.
-- Jeffery Commission will join Burford as a Director
upon the conclusion of his garden leave period in
the first half of 2018. Mr. Commission practiced
law with a specialty in international arbitration
for 15 years at firms including Freshfields and
Linklaters before joining Vannin Capital, and has
dual law degrees from McGill University and a Master
of Laws from University College London in International
Dispute Settlement.
-- John Lazar has been appointed as a Director. Mr.
Lazar has been with Burford since 2015 and will
now manage Burford's US commercial litigation finance
underwriting function. Mr. Lazar was previously
a litigator at Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Wollmuth
Maher & Deutch.
-- Brian Tracy has joined Burford as Director, Investor
Relations. Mr. Tracy was previously a director at
Brookfield Asset Management, a $250 billion global
alternative asset manager, and a Managing Director
at Bear Stearns among other senior financial services
industry positions.
-- Eric Carlson has been appointed as an IP Principal.
Mr. Carlson has been with Burford and GKC since
2014 focused on intellectual property investments.
Mr. Carlson was previously an IP litigator at Katten
Muchin Rosenman and Jones Day.
-- Philipp Leibfried has joined Burford as UK/European
Corporate Counsel, with a role in corporate matters
and in helping to develop the German market for
Burford. Mr. Leibfried comes to Burford from almost
a decade at Freshfields and holds law degrees from
Oxford and University College London.
-- Annie Duffy has joined Burford as Chief Compliance
Officer. Ms. Duffy is a lawyer and an experienced
compliance and government affairs professional,
most recently serving as Vice President and Chief
of Staff, Legal and Compliance at Nuveen Investments
and Compliance Director at Fidelity Investments.
-- Joshua Harris has joined Burford as a Vice President,
focused on patent matters. Mr. Harris was previously
a litigator at Loeb & Loeb with a particular focus
on pharmaceutical patent litigation and has both
law and biophysics degrees.
Christopher Bogart, Chief Executive Officer of Burford,
commented:
"I am delighted with the progress we have made in fully
absorbing the GKC business within Burford and I am thrilled with
the depth of our management team and the new additions and
promotions we have announced. The business is firing on all
cylinders with its ability to access capital from public and
private sources as well as a burgeoning secondary market. The
entire operation is now operating seamlessly on the Burford
platform. I look forward to the continued growth of the combined
business."
The person responsible for arranging for the release of this
announcement on behalf of the Company is Elizabeth O'Connell, Chief
Financial Officer.
For further information, please contact:
Burford Capital Limited
Elizabeth O'Connell, CFA, Chief +1 212 235
Financial Officer 6825
Macquarie Capital (Europe) Limited +44 (0)20
- NOMAD and Joint Broker 3037 2000
Jonny Allison
Nicholas Harland
Liberum Capital Limited - Joint +44 (0)20
Broker 3100 2222
Richard Crawley
Jamie Richards
Numis Securities Limited - Joint +44 (0)20
Broker 7260 1000
Charlie Farquhar
Andrew Holloway
Neustria Partners - Financial +44 (0)20
Communications for Burford Capital 3021 2580
Robert Bailhache [email]
Charles Gorman [email]
Nick Henderson [email]
About Burford Capital
Burford Capital is a leading global finance and investment
management firm focused on law. Its businesses include litigation
finance and risk management, asset recovery and a wide range of
legal finance and advisory activities. Burford is publicly traded
on the London Stock Exchange, and it works with law firms and
clients around the world from its principal offices in New York,
London and Chicago.
For more information about Burford: www.burfordcapital.com
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
MSCDZLFFDLFFFBL
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 15, 2017 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)
Burford Capital (LSE:BUR)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Burford Capital (LSE:BUR)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024