We’ve had a busy quarter at Erso with a wide spectrum of closed investments. Our recent deals include a range of arbitrations, contracts disputes and group litigations.
Individual commitment amounts for single case investments have continued to range across a broad spectrum with the smallest being £1.75m ($2.34m) and the largest circa £12m ($16m). In addition, we are in active due diligence on several large transactions, one of which will have a commitment amount exceeding £180m ($240m) at close.
Our investment appetite remains broad, and we have new joiners expected to join the expanding global team shortly.
We will also be launching two new investment facilities targeting specific subsets of the disputes market beginning in the second quarter of 2022.
As ever, we remain keen to hear from commercial litigation and arbitration lawyers whose clients are interested in securing funding for their prospective or existing disputes.
Why choose Erso over others?
We recognise there is a plethora of capital in the market but having capital and putting it to work are two separate things.
The funding market, like any, is subject to its own moving sands e.g. with personnel moving between funds, funders in run-off or key principals distracted with capital raising. These are the sort of dynamics that can create frustrations for fee-earners with time-sensitive matters who need consistency and reliability
Erso seeks to differentiate itself on multiple grounds:
We have large capital backing. The reason why we’re able to consider such a broad spectrum of investment opportunities (£1m to £200m+) is because we have large institutional backing.
We are affiliated to a market-leading insurance specialist – TheJudge, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Thomas Miller Group. This carries significant advantages for our clients’ pursuing cases in cost-shifting environments. Erso can work in tandem with TheJudge team to secure the necessary adverse costs insurance and security for costs solutions. This can be particularly important for large group litigations that often require significant amounts of adverse cost insurance, since rival book-building, CPO applications and so-called ‘carriage disputes’ can make it a race to ring-fence the limited insurance capacity available. TheJudge has been a leading specialist in this field for over 20 years.
People matter. Our senior team have worked together for over 18 years and exclusively all in the litigation risk transfer space. This began as owners of TheJudge before it was sold to Thomas Miller in 2020 and now at Erso. We mention this to demonstrate not only the core experience but as importantly, the consistency of the team. Many of our respective relationships with lawyers extend back over a long period of time. People who trusted us to deliver 10yrs ago and who still trust us today.
We’re transparent and realistic. If we think we’re unlikely to approve a case at committee, we won’t waste our clients’ time. We fundamentally believe lawyers appreciate a quick no rather than a drawn-out exercise to yield the same outcome. We have a 100% track record with the cases we’ve taken to our committee, so if we confirm we like a case then we’re prioritising and investing our time because we know it’s highly likely we will complete.
Have an opportunity to discuss?
Key Contacts:
| Europe | US | |
| Matthew Amey | James Delaney | James Blick |