Third party

A specialist shareholder action funder is to back a £400m claim being prepared against oilfield service company Petrofac arising out of an alleged bribery scandal.

Australian third-party funder Litigation Capital Management Limited – which has taken over London funder Chancery Capital – made its bow on AIM yesterday.

Leading third-party funder Burford Capital has announced nearly $1bn (£790m) in new funding, which it will support with $633m of its own capital, to facilitate its investments for up to four years.

Litigation funder Vannin Capital has failed to obtain summary judgment of its £14m claim against RBS shareholders it backed who then successfully sued the bank.

Insolvency litigation funder Manolete is to raise £16.3m when it is admitted to AIM next week, it has announced. The selling shareholders will realise a further £13.1m.

An Australian third-party litigation funder is to join London’s AIM market in a bid to grow its business, it has announced. Meanwhile, Woodsford Litigation Funding has announced extra backing.

There is strong growth in the consideration and use of litigation finance in the UK, new research has found, with 63% of respondents saying their organisation’s use of it has increased in the last two years.

Top third-party funder Burford Capital has earmarked $50m (£38m) to finance cases led by women lawyers as part of a groundbreaking initiative designed to help close the gender gap in law by providing an “economic incentive for change”.

Lawyers and litigation funders would “by a considerable margin” be the main beneficiaries of any award in a representative action against Google over misuse of private data, the High Court has ruled in blocking the case going forward.

Burford Capital, the world’s largest litigation funder, has raised a further £193m ($250m) in less than 24 hours after an oversubscribed placing. The new shares were placed at 1850p, reflecting the extraordinary growth in the AIM-listed company’s share price.