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LONDON (Alliance News) - Finance and investment management firm Burford Capital Ltd on Wednesday said its annual profit increased, driven by increased income from its investments.
Shares in Burford Capital were up 6.8% at 1,942.00 pence on Wednesday morning.
Burford Capital posted a pretax profit of USD305.1 million in 2018, 12% ahead of its USD273.4 million profit the year before.
Investment income was USD401.2 million, up 25% from GBP321.1 million, taking total income up 24% to USD425.0 million from USD342.6 million.
Assets under management from Burford's investment management business grew 47% to USD2.5 billion from USD1.7 billion.
The company is proposing a final 8.83 US cents per share dividend, which would take the total for the year to 12.50 cents per share, 14% higher than its 11.0 cents per share dividend for 2017.
Burford Chief Executive Christopher Bogart said: "The big question this year was whether 2017's explosive growth was a one-time anomaly. These results show that it was not. Burford has committed USD2.6 billion to new investments in just the last two years, more than twice its lifetime cumulative commitment level prior to that time. That is extraordinary and suggests a sea change has occurred in the legal finance marketplace.
"We met that demand by raising incremental capital on our balance sheet and by making robust use of our new investment management business, including a ground-breaking deal with a sovereign wealth fund with very favourable terms. We also continued to grow so that we now field a team of more than 110, including 55 experienced lawyers, and we have by far the largest capital base in the business to the advantage of our clients and our investors. As we approach our tenth anniversary, we are excited to continue to lead legal finance into the future."
