I’ve got a case and I come to Omni; what’s the typical commercial structure?

One of the aspects that I like most about working for Omni Bridgeway is the commerciality and the flexibility of the solutions that we can offer. It’s not necessarily the same with other funders. We have rule of thumb criteria that we look for in cases that we are going to invest in but the approach, generally, is very can-do. How can we make this investment work? What terms can we offer that are going to work for the client and will also work for us? That really means that the financials of any particular deal vary quite widely, depending on what the case looks like.

Essentially, the criteria that we apply relate to three things. The first is the merits of the case and that is always the same. There has to be good prospects of success or there is no point investigating the case further.

Is that from a legal perspective?

Yes, from a legal perspective. The other two criteria that we apply relate to the economics. The second criteria looks at the possibility of recoveries. The other criteria that we look at are the economics of the particular deal. In making an assessment on that basis, we are looking at how much it is going to cost for the proceedings; and how much of that cost is the client looking for us to fund? Are they looking for any additional capital to go with that? Do they need seed funding to investigate the basis of the claim? Do they need any working capital to keep their business going, while the claim is on foot, or just generally? We need to understand the quantum of funding that is being sought and then we need to look at that in comparison to the realistic value of the claim. That is not the headline value of what is actually being claimed, but what we actually think the case is worth. We will then offer terms on the basis of what those two elements look like.

Generally, pricing can be any number of different structures. It might be that we get a reimbursement of our funded costs and then the return would typically be either a multiple of what we’ve spent or it could be a percentage of the amount that is actually recovered. It could be a combination of those two things. Terms might vary, depending on different factors. For example, up to a certain amount of recoveries, we might recover on certain terms and then, beyond a certain hurdle, we might then recover on a different basis, according to the nature of the claim, the quantum of the claim and how long we think it’s going to take.