Company type | Public |
---|---|
LSE:
BUR NYSE: BUR | |
Industry | Financial services |
Founded | 2009 |
Founders | Christopher Bogart Jonathan Molot |
Headquarters |
Guernsey New York City Chicago London |
Key people | Christopher Bogart (CEO)
[1] Jonathan Molot (CIO) |
Products | Litigation finance |
Website |
www |
Burford Capital, founded in 2009, provides specialized finance to the legal market. [2] It operates as a finance 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 and arbitration, [3] asset recovery and other legal finance and advisory activities. [4]
Burford was founded by Christopher Bogart as a way to fund legal cases. The company was launched with Jonathan Molot in 2009. [5]
Burford has been publicly traded on the London AIM Stock Exchange (BUR:LN) [6] 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. [7]
On 7 August 2019, Muddy Waters Research cited issues [8] [9] with Burford's fair value accounting practices and of misrepresenting its returns on invested capital and rates of return. [10] [11] Burford responded to each of the seven claims made by Muddy Waters, raising what it called “many factual inaccuracies”. [12] On 12 August 2019, Burford alleged it had identified evidence consistent with “illegal market manipulation” of its shares in the run up to a short attack. [13] Three days later, on 15 August 2019, Burford announced the replacement of its chief finance officer, the spouse of the chief executive officer. [14]
On 21 June 2021, Burford Capital announced it had successfully been paid $103m USD, resulting from the divorce settlement between Farkhad Akhmedov, a Russian businessman and Tatiana Akhmedova. [15] 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. [16] [17]
In March 2024, Burford Capital announced increased earnings per share of $2.74, driven by a tripling of consolidated total revenues to $1.1 billion in 2023. [18]