Therium raises £325m as litigation firm readies for legal scraps

Litigation specialist Therium has raised £325 million from institutional investors including a sovereign wealth fund as it looks to bankroll more big-ticket legal actions.

It means that Therium, which raised £200 million last year, has now exceeded 1 billion US dollars (£758 million) in funding as the asset class gains in popularity.

The fresh investment has been gleaned from two existing investors and, for the first time, a sovereign wealth fund.

Therium co-founder Neil Purslow said it is a “huge sign of maturity” in the sector, where investors can expect “private equity type double-digit returns”.

The firm’s core business model involves funding lawsuits and then taking a portion of the damages if successful.

It has bankrolled the class action lawsuit against car giant Volkswagen over the emissions scandal and is the money behind Noel Edmonds’ legal war with Lloyds Bank.

The company has recently opened an office in Australia to serve Asia-Pacific and also boasts teams in the UK, USA, Germany, Spain and Norway.

Therium said the new funds will be used to invest in more litigation and arbitration cases globally across sectors including financial services, energy and mining, industrials, technology, media and entertainment.

Mr Purslow added: “The demand for our litigation and arbitration funding continues at pace across all of our jurisdictions.

“The benefits of funding are becoming increasingly widespread across the world; from claimants that would not otherwise have the capital to launch their claims, to the largest corporates that use funding to transform claims into financial assets.

“In line with this, we are seeing a steady rise of single case funding as well as litigation and arbitration financing across multiple dispute types.”