World litigation finance main Omni Bridgeway eyes India entry

Omni Bridgeway, which is without doubt one of the largest litigation funders on this planet with belongings underneath administration (AUM) value over $3 billion, is planning to enter the Indian market to assist banks, companies, and determination professionals (RPs) in recovering dangerous offshore money owed and belongings held overseas.  

“The Indian market has a variety of potential and stays untapped with loads of home alternatives,” mentioned Tom Glasgow, Managing Director, Omni Bridgeway. He was talking at India’s first Litigation and Insolvency Summit, 2022, which was organised final week by LegalPay, a home litigation funding start-up. 

Glasgow, who has been with Omni Bridgeway since 2017, additional mentioned that whereas litigation funding is a broadly prevalent idea globally, it’s nonetheless fairly new to India at the same time as homegrown start-up LegalPay has been working in the direction of creating consciousness relating to the scope and potential of the phase.  

Merely put, litigation financing is third-party funding for litigation issues. Whereas litigation financing is kind of new in India, it’s fairly in style in most of the developed economies the place there are devoted ventures that specialize in such sort of funding.  

“The tempo at which litigation financing has grown the world over during the last decade is phenomenal and the Indian market presents a profitable alternative for international traders having thesis of ESG investing,” mentioned Glasgow. 

This assumes significance as information from the Insolvency and Chapter Board of India reveals that there are 5,481 complete instances the place CIRP — Company Insolvency Decision Course of — has been initiated in opposition to the company debtors. Additional, there was graduation of the liquidation course of in 1,703 instances.

By the way, in its annual report for the yr 2021, Omni Bridgeway acknowledged that it has expanded its geographic presence with distant servicing, places of work, businesses and different preparations, to service nations like Japan, India, Latin America, New Zealand and Spain. 

Litigation funding is quick gaining recognition in India as an rising variety of regulation corporations and companies are taking a look at such financing to fund their authorized issues. 

A latest research by LegalPay discovered that over 40 per cent of the instances that it funded originated from Tier I regulation corporations with round 25 per cent of the issues coming from unbiased counsels as effectively. 

Since its inception in 2019, LegalPay, has underwritten over 1,500 instances of litigations and arbitrations throughout jurisdictions together with India, Australia, Singapore, US and Europe. 

The LegalPay research additionally confirmed that as a lot as 73 per cent of the instances originated from the unlisted area with logistics as a sector accounting for the most important chunk at 31 per cent, adopted by monetary establishments at 28 per cent and constructions at 22 per cent. 

In the meantime, the LegalPay occasion was attended by greater than 150 veterans, together with excessive profile legal professionals, worldwide funders, decision professionals, traders, enterprise funds, household places of work, banks, non-banking monetary corporations (NBFCs), fintech gamers, asset reconstruction corporations (ARCs), and wealth administration corporations amongst others. 

World philanthropist and former chairman of Through.com, Ashwini Kakkar additionally highlighted the affect of authorized financing, shedding gentle on the affect it creates for the claimants who should not have entry to the correct set of authorized professionals and funds to pursue meritorious disputes in opposition to bigger gamers.  

In the same context, Hiroo Advani, founding father of Advani Regulation, shared his ideas relating to the rising position of funding in arbitrations in India and the way it will form up within the close to future and assist arrange smoother arbitrary operations for the general progress of the authorized trade.

Additionally learn: What’s litigation funding? The brand new pattern in Indian authorized system