Burford Capital, founded in 2009, provides specialized finance to the legal market. It operates as a

finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

and professional services company worldwide with principal offices in New York, London and Chicago. The company offers financing to lawyers and clients engaged in

litigation - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...

and

arbitration Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that resolves disputes outside the judiciary courts. The dispute will be decided by one or more persons (the 'arbitrators', 'arbiters' or 'arbitral tribunal'), which renders the ' ...

, asset recovery and other legal finance and advisory activities.

History

Burford was founded by Christopher Bogart as a way to fund legal cases. The company was launched with Jonathan Molot in 2009. Burford has been publicly traded on the London AIM

Stock Exchange A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for th ...

(BUR:LN) since October 2009 and issued further shares in a follow-on in 2010. In 2017, Burford received the AIM Award for Innovative Fundraising of the Year. On 7 August 2019,

Muddy Waters Research Muddy Waters Research LLC is an American privately held due diligence based investment firm that conducts investigative research on public companies while also taking investment positions that reflect their research. The firm has exposed accounti ...

cited issues with Burford's fair value accounting practices and of misrepresenting its returns on invested capital and rates of return. Burford responded to each of the seven claims made by Muddy Waters, raising what it called “many factual inaccuracies”. On 12 August 2019, Burford alleged it had identified evidence consistent with “illegal

market manipulation In economics and finance, market manipulation is a type of market abuse where there is a deliberate attempt to interfere with the free and fair operation of the market; the most blatant of cases involve creating false or misleading appearances ...

” of its shares in the run up to a short attack. Three days later, on 15 August 2019, Burford announced the replacement of its chief finance officer, the spouse of the chief executive officer. On 21 June 2021, Burford Capital announced it had successfully been paid $103m USD, resulting from the divorce settlement between

Farkhad Akhmedov Farkhad Teimurovich Akhmedov ( az, Fərhad Teymur oğlu Əhmədov, Russian: ''Фархад Теймурович Ахмедов;'' born 15 September 1955) is an Azerbaijani businessman and a former politician in Russia, departing his role in 20 ...

, a Russian businessman and Tatiana Akhmedova. Bloomberg claims the total settlement was $186m USD. Burford Capital were successful in financing the litigation and were paid over 55% of the total settlement, which contributed $20m to its 2021 operating profit, according to Burford Capital.

References

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External links

Burford Capital Home Page
Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Financial services companies based in London Financial services companies based in New York City Lawsuits Legal costs