Litigation Funder Litigation Capital Management (LCM) struck an upbeat note ‘despite disruption as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns and unprecedented restrictions’ as it announced half-year results today.
The AIM-listed funder said profit before tax for the six months to 31 December 2021 was up to A$4.04m (£2.23m) from a loss of A$1.37m (£756,000) a year ago.
LCM – which has offices in London, Australia and Singapore – said its results showed ‘a significant improvement on the prior year’, with total assets under management also up from A$343m (£190m) at the end of 2021 to A$386m (£213m) as of last week.
‘We have achieved great progress during the period despite disruption as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns and unprecedented restrictions in the areas we operate,’ LCM’s chief executive Patrick Moloney said.
The funder said lockdowns in the UK, Australia and Singapore prevented it from ‘operating its usual business of origination’, and that ‘restricted market conditions during the interim period resulted in our new applications being down by 26% compared to the prior period’.
But LCM said ‘that reduction was almost exclusively consequent upon our investment managers in all offices being home-bound’, adding that it was ‘already seeing a strong and increased demand for our capital, with an acceleration in applications in the first two months of the current period’.
Moloney said: ‘The countercyclical nature of our industry suggests that economic and market conditions at present represent a growing opportunity for the company which will be realised over the long-term. We look to the second half and beyond with optimism and confidence.’
LCM’s shares were down by just over 6% on yesterday’s close at 102p this afternoon, having recovered from 97p this morning.