In August 2018, we completed an £9m capital-raise for Connection Therium No2 LLP, a commercial litigation fund. Litigation funding is where a third party provides the financial resources to assist a claimant with expensive litigation or arbitration cases in return for an agreed share of the proceeds of any successful claim.
As an asset class which has very little correlation with any traditional asset class or market, it has been well received by our clients over the past few years. As a result, this was the fourth litigation funding vehicle managed by Therium Capital Management that we have been able to offer, with clients investing in the fund alongside major institutional investors.
Therium's coverage is broad, deploying litigation funding across a range of industry sectors, from financial services to technology and energy, in areas such as intellectual property, anti-trust/competition claims and international arbitration.
The third-party litigation funding market is growing rapidly – by the end of 2009, around $400m had been raised globally, but by the end of 2017 this had increased to $5bn. There is increasing demand for this asset class from private investors because it offers attractive risk-adjusted returns, with potential money multiples similar to private equity, but expected to be generated within shorter timeframes, usually within five years.
