BURFORD CAPITAL LIMITED (BUR)

BURFORD CAPITAL LIMITED (BUR)

Blog posts

Burford and Woodford compared

This article reflects the opinions of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Different approaches from SEC and FCA The Burford and Woodford cases highlight different US and UK practices. In the US, the Judge explains the role of the litigation funder, justifies its role and why it should not affect his judgement. In the UK, the FCA, in the case of Woodford and Link, is attempting to work with Link to allow the plaintiff to settle all its compensation claims for what has ...

A Review of my Portfolio in 2020

By Cliff Weight, ShareSoc Director Please note I am not qualified to give investment advice, and nothing in this blog constitutes advice. Overview Chris Spencer Phillips reported in a recent blog https://www.sharesoc.org/blog/investment-strategies/a-review-of-my-2020-share-portfolio-chris-spencer-phillips/ that his portfolio was up +80% in 2020, after being + 25% in 2019. Congrats and hats off to Chris. I cannot rival that, but I thought readers might find my review of 2020 of interest. My portfolio numbers for 2020 were: Everything – all equities, ISAs, SIPPs, OEICS, etc       ...

Share Centre Future and FT Spoofing Article 

The Share Centre recently advised their customers of “Our Future with Interactive Investor”. It gave details of the transfer of accounts to the Interactive Investor platform following the acquisition of the Share Centre business. However they failed to point out one important point which customers need to be aware of. Share Centre ISAs are “Flexi ISAs”. This means that you can take cash out of the ISA and put it back in so long as you do it in the same tax ...

It Pays to Take Note of Shorters

An article by ShareSoc member Michael Taylor In light of the recent Burford Capital judgement that my friend Paul de Gruchy has written about in detail here, this has led to much debate about shorting, some of which I hope to add to here in this article. Is shorting bad? Yes and no. It can be. A broker who goes short on a stock then offers to conduct an equity placing for the same company in order to close their position is clearly blatant ...

Slave to the Algorithm: Burford and the Importance of Maintaining Confidence in a Broken System

On 1 October 2019 I wrote an article about Burford in which I said that their application to obtain, from the LSE, details of how trades in their shares were placed and then apparently cancelled last August was a rare opportunity to discover whether market manipulation is endemic on the LSE. It is important to highlight that this case is not about Burford, which has become a divisive company. It is nothing to do with whether the claims made by Muddy ...

Stock Market Trends, Covid-19 Treatments, Burford Results, Lookers Accounting and Medica

The stock market seems to be returning to normal with a positive trend over the last month despite the economy being in a complete shambles as a result of the “lock-down”. The Government is incurring massive costs to bail-out companies, support the NHS and pay workers to do nothing. We have yet to see the real economic impact of those measures on the Government’s finances. But investors seem to be euphoric because they now realise we are not all going to ...

Market Manipulation? The Burford Case

In this article from October last year, ShareSoc director Paul de Gruchy sets out the allegations Burford has made about manipulation of its shares, during a "shorting attack". Many ShareSoc members are concerned that the FCA is not adequately enforcing the market abuse regime, which is intended to deter market manipulation (whether long or short). Burford's case has now reached a critical juncture. Burford have asked the court for a "Norwich Pharmacal Order", to compel the LSE to disclose the identity of traders ...

Competition in the Audit Market

I attended a “roundtable” event at the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) on Monday. It was primarily a discussion of audit market competition and how to improve it, with private...

Mello Event, ProVen and ShareSoc Seminars and Lots More News

It’s been a busy last two days for me with several events attended. The first was on Tuesday when I attended the Mello London event in Chiswick. It was...

Speedy Hire Presentation, Burford Analysis and Treatt Trading Statement

On Tuesday the 1st October I attended a company seminar organised by ShareSoc in Birmingham, mainly to present my new book. But there was an interesting presentation given there...

Burford – a chance to clear out the stables or a case of nothing to see?

The Burford Capital soap opera rumbles on, and for those who don’t hold shares, the temptation to ignore the story, or even worse, fall into the lazy belief that...

Burford, GE and Media Regulation

As most readers will be aware, Burford Capital (BUR) has been under attack by Muddy Waters over its accounts, corporate governance and other matters. Muddy Waters, led by Carson...

Burford – Illegal Market Manipulation?

Burford Capital (BUR) have issued an announcement that makes a number of allegations about the events surrounding the recent shorting attack on the company involving Muddy Waters. It includes: Spoofing and layering to move the share price, e.g. putting in numerous share sales on the order book and cancelling them before they can be filled. That includes numerous such transactions just before Muddy Waters issued a tweet giving Burford as the target, and as that tweet was delayed only Muddy Waters ...

Burford Capital, Goals Soccer Centres, Carillion, and Why Numbers Are Not Important

To follow on from my previous comments this morning on Burford Capital (BUR), this is a typical “shorting” attack where the shorter (Muddy Waters) and their supporters make a lot of allegations which investors are unable to verify in any useful time frame. I certainly questioned the accounting approach used by Burford and other litigation finance firms as I commented on it back in June, but disentangling the factual accusations in the Muddy Waters dossier from innuendo and comment is not ...

Market Crashes and Burford Capital

Investors might have been panicked by the recent market falls driven by the US/China trade wars, Brexit and gloomy economic forecasts. As usual, the UK market is led by the US markets. The S&P 500 is down 5% since the 26th July even though there was a slight bounce upwards yesterday. There can be few readers portfolios which have not suffered some impact because there were few stocks that did not fall. Now I am an inveterate trend follower so how did ...

Paying Illegal Dividends, Burford Capital, Woodford Patient Capital Trust and Zero Carbon Objective

A group of investors including Sarasin, Legal & General, Hermes and the UK Shareholders Association (UKSA) has written to Sir Donald Brydon who is undertaking a review of the audit market. They have yet again raised the question of whether the International Financial Accounting Standards (IFRS) are consistent with UK company law. In particular they question whether profits are sometimes being recognised, thus allowing the payment of illegal dividends. The particular issue is whether profits can arise on certain transactions under ...

Media Mentions

Evening Standard, 3 October 2019, Top shareholder body backs Burford’s legal action

...ShareSoc — a body which protects individual investors — said Burford is right to take its own legal action to find out who may have manipulated its stock, claiming the Financial Conduct Authority lacks the firepower and has no track record of prosecutions when it comes to so-called “spoofing and layering”... https://www.standard.co.uk/business/top-shareholder-body-backs-underfire-burfords-legal-action-over-spoofing-a4253096.html