Suitable Assets

摘要

Looking for those elusive uncor-related assets? How about investing in U.S. lawsuits? Juridica, a closed-end fund, does just that, buying stakes in commercial plaintiffs' claims and extending credit to law firms in return for interest and a share of the spoils of settlements or court awards. Juridica's managers contend that theirrnU.K.-listed fund represents an entirely new asset class, and it has attracted the backing of such high-profile U.K. investors as Invesco Perpetual's Neil Woodford, Jupiter Asset Management's Anthony Nutt and Artemis Investment Management's John Dodd.rnLaunched in December 2007 by a group of lawyers led by American Richard Fields, Juridica has $115.4 million, or roughly 60 percent of its assets, deployed across 23 cases. The fund benefited from wins in the first three to reach maturity, reaping $6.41 million. Fields warned at the outset, however, that it would be two to three years before investors started seeing good returns, as results would depend on cases' coming to maturity. The fund's return for its first fiscal year was 4.6 percent.