Burford Capital Share News (BUR)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares in investment management firm Burford Capital Ltd soared on Wednesday as the company said profit for 2017 more than doubled on the back of a sharp rise in income from investments.

Shares in Burford were up 27% on Wednesday at 1,382.80 pence each.

Burford's pretax profit for 2017 soared to USD264.7 million from the USD100.3 million recorded in 2016, with total income likewise more than doubling to USD341.2 million from USD163.4 million.

Investment income jumped to USD318.2 million from USD140.2 million, a rise of 108%.

Burford is paying a final dividend of 7.95 US cents. This takes its total payout to shareholders for the year to 11 cents, up 20% year-on-year.

The company said "persistent" demand for its capital is reflected in record new investment commitments of USD1.34 billion, compared to just USD378.0 million in 2016, which it said has "sown the seeds" of future profit.

Assets under management increased to USD1.7 billion from USD1.3 billion in 2016.

Burford said it has had an "active" start to 2018, having committed USD128.5 million in 12 new investments in the first two months of the year, compared to just one USD1.0 million investment in the same period the prior year.

Chief Executive Christopher Bogart said: "The past year saw an explosion of demand for Burford's capital from clients around the world, including from our expansions into Asia and Europe.

"We met that demand by raising incremental capital on our balance sheet and by making robust use of our new investment management business."