Lawsuit financiers' funds increase



Aside from the legal entities generating high-cost litigation fees from the ongoing Al Gosaibi-Al Sanea saga, other companies have been making hay as the sun shines on the sector.

Burford Capital, a London-listed fund that finances lawsuits in return for a cut of any payouts, said profit doubled last year as several of the cases it invested in came good.

The company, which competes with Juridica in the United States and Britain, plans to raise its dividend for shareholders by one third reflecting a strong outlook.

"We're obviously feeling very positive about the results, about the business and the industry as a whole," the Burford chief executive Christopher Bogart said last week.

Pretax profit excluding the impact of an acquisition, jumped to US$34.1m (Dh124.8m) from $16m a year earlier. The company plans to raise its dividend to 4.76 cents per share from 3.66 cents the previous year.

Burford's shares have climbed almost 14 per cent so far this year.

The company, which has $300m under management, said 12 litigations finished last year, generating $47m in gross investment recoveries, a return of 61 per cent. That was more than the previous two years combined.

It said it has a further $53m in gross payouts pending and a strong pipeline of nine legal cases that it has committed $72m to.

"We believe that both the deployment and investment recoveries should continue to grow strongly in 2013 and beyond," RBC Capital Markets analysts said in a note to clients.

Burford declined to name its clients or the cases it is funding, citing legal reasons.

The company entered the UK market last year after acquiring Firstassist for $18.75m on a cash-free, debt-free basis.

Mr Bogart said in its first 10 months, Firstassist, now called Burford UK, has generated $11m in profit before tax.

Juridica, a British firm based in Guernsey, also revealed a significant rise in annual profits for last year as case activity grew.

The company said last month total cash profit from case activity rocketed 195 per cent to $38.1m, compared with $12.9m a year earlier, according to YahooFinance.

Total comprehensive income attributable to equity owners increased 14 pr cent to $37.6m from $32.9m, while gross cash proceeds came to $38.4m, up 125 per cent from $17.1m in 2011.

Juridica, whose clients include Fortune 1000 companies, FT Global 500 businesses, inventors, universities, and the leading law firms that represent them, said an increase in return on its investments in cases drove results.

"The company saw significant activity in several of its investments, including final settlement of two cases, partial settlement of several cases with multiple defendants, four successful verdicts, and two judgements that were favourably affirmed on appeals," YahooFinance quoted it as saying.

The group expects to see activity increase in its portfolio over the next year, based on the confirmation of trial dates and final case decisions, the website added.

* with agencies

Get Out

Director: Jordan Peele

Stars: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford

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Stars: Colin Farrell, Hugh Grant 

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Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
ESSENTIALS

The flights

Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.

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Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.

The tours

A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages. 

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A MINECRAFT MOVIE

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Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.

Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.

Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.

Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.

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Creator: Mike White

Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell

Rating: 4.5/5

THE SPECS

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”