Travers Smith guides Juridica on secondary £35m AIM deal

Travers ;Smith ;has advised litigation funding group Juridica on a £35m secondary fundraising on London’s junior market.

Juridica ;instructed ­Travers head of corporate finance Spencer Summerfield on the conditional ­placing of 30 million ­ordinary shares on AIM.

The firm advised Juridica on its original IPO on AIM in December 2007, through which it raised £80m to be invested in claims (The Lawyer, 10 March 2008).

The group had anticipated that the original £80m would be fully invested by the second half of this year, but sought the extra cash because it achieved the fund’s aims early. Juridica has so far made 10 investments, which give it exposure to 15 current cases.

Richard Fields, company co-founder and co-principle of Juridica’s investment management arm, said hedge funds and banks were beginning to pull out of the claims funding sector, meaning there are more opportunities and less ­competition.

Cenkos Securities acted as nominated adviser to the placing and was advised by Latham & Watkins partner Nigel Campion Smith.