INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION 1/3LY
C URREN T T RENDS A CROS S T HE GL OBE
BEN That is an interesting point. Looking at current news, we saw that you have struck up an eight figure deal with amajor FTSE 100 company to fund their litigation. Is that something that we are going to seemore of? NI CK Well, the slight issue I have with that is we are not allowed to talk about who we did that deal with. It would be lovely to be able to explainwhat that particular deal was becausewhat’s in the press bears no resemblance to the reality and it’s amuchmore sophisticated product than it appears. I can say that we were approached directly. There are lawyers involved because they need tomake sure everything is being done as would be expected, but yes, it’s a decision by amajor corporate to say “I don’t want to keep paying this andwould like someone else to pay it.” We do lots of those sorts of deals. The one we releasedwas the biggest one that we’ve done recently and it took a lot of hard work. Those sorts of deals aremore prevalent than people would suggest. Not necessarilywith big FTSE companies, but those sorts of deals are happening all the time, and I think they’ll continue, as that’s where we domost of our work.
BEN Let’s discuss international arbitration specifically. Are there any key trends which you are noticing? Hot regions perhaps? Or industries? NI CK Generally it’s busy! TheMiddle East remains busy while Asia is growing in its interest, and there is a lot of talk around funding despite being slightly restricted by regulation. There’s a lot of constructionwork coming out of Eastern Europe too. We are even starting to see governments and large corporates looking at options around funding portfolios because of the high value nature of some of the claims. That’s not common place, but it’s happening. BEN Are you seeing a rise in the number of Energy Charter Treaty and investment treaty cases? NI CK Yes – there is a lot of that. Some funders really like the investment treaty disputes as they are very expensive and the returns are big. The downside is that they take a long time and I don’t think it suits everyone, depending on your structure as a funder. For example, if you’re a five year closed-end fund and you pick up a big claimhalf way through, will you be able to fund it all the way until the end?
THE MIDDLE E A S T REMA INS BUSY WHILE A S I A I S GROWING IN I T S INT ERES T AND THERE I S A LOT OF TALK AROUND FUNDING DESP I TE BE ING SL IGHT LY RES TRI CTED BY REGUL AT ION.
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