# Burford Capital Results don’t need to be appealed

- Link: https://www.directorstalkinterviews.com/burford-capital-results-dont-need-to-be-appealed/412789372
- Published: 2019-08-05T10:10:59+01:00
- Author: Giles Arbor

**Burford Capital** (LON: BUR) has announced its interim results for 1H’19 and has
produced another excellent set of figures. After stripping out third-party interests,
revenue was up 40% to $287m and earnings grew 36% to $225m. Litigation investment
was again the star, with income also increasing 36% to $265m. While this saw some
benefit from the recent Petersen transaction, there were strong results beyond that
with the rest of the portfolio producing a first-half RoIC of 78%. These brought
total recoveries to $1.16bn from 99 investments, with a cumulative RoIC of 98% (
from 85% to 31 December 2018) and IRR of 32% (from 30%).

 * **New commitments:** It was good to see a return to growth in commitments, with
   36% growth to $751m in the half-year; 2018 had been relatively flat compared 
   with 2017. Deployments had slower growth of 8%, affected by a $130m portfolio
   investment for which the entire deployment is deferred.
 * **Cash and capital:** Cash generation from operations was $184m, although payment
   of receivables since 30 June would have lifted this by $126m. Deployments in 
   the half were $198m. So, period-end cash of $171m, has risen to $297m now, slightly
   in excess of the $277m in place at 31 December 2018.
 * **Risks:** The investment portfolio is highly diversified, with exposure to more
   than 1,100 claims. However, it retains some very large investments, which means
   revenue could be volatile, particularly in the smaller divisions. The Petersen
   case shows that this volatility is not simply a negative.
 * **Investment summary:** Burford Capital has already demonstrated an impressive
   ability to deliver good returns in a growing market while investing its capital
   base. As the invested capital continues to expand, we would anticipate that the
   litigation investment business will continue to generate strong earnings growth.

[DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT](https://www.hardmanandco.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Burford-Capital-5-August-2019.pdf)

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