Litigation Capital agrees to finance Carillion dispute

Dispute finance provider Litigation Capital Management has entered into a new litigation finance agreement with certain Carillion entities, in liquidation, it announced on Wednesday.

The AIM-traded firm said the agreement to provide a litigation finance facility was to fund a claim in the Commercial Court of the High Court of England and Wales against the Carillion group's former auditors, KPMG.

It said the claim arose from KPMG's conduct of its audits of the group's financial statements, adding that the losses which form the claim were expected to exceed £250m.

Carillion, which failed in January 2018, was the largest corporate collapse in the building and construction industry in UK history.

“As a pioneer of the litigation finance industry, LCM has long and deep experience in funding insolvency related disputes,” said chief executive officer Patrick Moloney.

“As such, LCM is extremely well placed to tailor a finance package to pursue these claims.”

Executive vice-chairman Nick Rowles-Davies added that the investment demonstrated the company’s “prominence and pedigree” in the disputes finance industry, particularly iits position as a “funder of choice” in the UK insolvency market.

“We are delighted to be supporting thousands of creditors who have suffered as a consequence of the biggest insolvency in recent UK history.”

At 1329 BST, shares in Litigation Capital Management were down 0.2% at 99.8p.