Suing Is Canada’s New Asset Class as Investors Bet on Claims
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IMF Bentham Ltd. is looking to finance commercial litigation in the country, as well as restructurings and insolvencies, as part of the Australian firm’s global expansion. The company has looked at 225 prospective cases since opening a Toronto office in January 2016 under the banner Bentham IMF Canada. It’s financed six commercial litigation cases since July, and has two more cases in front of its investment committee, according to Tania Sulan, chief investment officer for Canada.
“Even mid-sized companies — who has got a couple of million dollars of disposable cash that they can put towards a litigation dispute? It’s just not accessible to the vast majority of companies,” she said in an interview.
Litigation financing has existed for years in Australia and the U.S. but not in Canada due to a widely held interpretation of a provision of common law that says third parties can’t fund and profit from litigation. Bentham began to receive applications to fund Canadian cases as far back as 2014, she said.
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