Short positions... Burford wins a big victory

⬛ The manager of the Ashoka India Equity (AIE) Investment Trust is aiming to bring off the first listing of a new trust in London for 18 months, says Citywire. Mumbai-based WhiteOak Capital, founded by AIE manager Prashant Khemka, wants to raise £100m for the Ashoka WhiteOak Emerging Markets Trust (AWEM). The trust will invest in growth companies at reasonable valuations across emerging markets globally, with an environmental, social and governance (ESG) filter. There will be no fixed management fee, but the manager will receive a performance fee based on outperformance over the MSCI Emerging Markets index over three years. A discount control mechanism will allow shareholders to redeem at net asset value (NAV) once per year. AIE, which raised £45m when it listed in 2018, now has a market value of about £200m due to strong returns and fundraising. It has returned 126% over three years, compared with 94% for the MSCI India index.

⬛ Shares in litigation-finance fund Burford Capital have risen to a four-year high after a recent ruling put it in line for a multi-billion-dollar payout, says the Financial Times. A US court has found in favour of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit over the nationalisation of energy firm YPF by Argentina. Burford, which funds legal cases in exchange for a share of the proceeds, has invested around $600m in the YPF litigation. Damages have yet to be decided, but may be worth between $3.2bn and $6.4bn to Burford, reckon analysts at stockbroker Jefferies. The win is a validation for Burford, whose shares halved in 2019 after a short-seller attack. Still, investors remain “wary of the opacity and complexity of litigation as an asset”, and tighter monetary policy may further reduce the appeal of this type of unconventional investment.