Burford Capital's New York offices in Manhattan. Burford Capital's New York offices in Manhattan.

Burford Capital announced Monday that its profits from the last year were likely to be lower than those from 2018, but the litigation finance giant highlighted a record $1.6 billion in commitments to new investments.

In an update on its 2019 trading performance, the company sought to minimize the impact of an expected $20-30 million dip in net realized gains and an anticipated $50-70 million decline in unrealized gains, pointing to a series of litigation wins in January 2020.

The London-listed financier had a tumultuous 2019, when an attack from short-selling investment research firm Muddy Waters caused the company's stock prices to plunge and prompted a shakeup in its leadership structure.

"Burford had an exceptional year of growth in 2019, including a 24% increase in overall commitments, positioning the business favourably for the years ahead, while our returns remained robust and even inched higher than before," Burford CEO Christopher Bogart said in a statement. "The new year is off to a brisk start. This is evident in our January numbers where, if ultimately affirmed and paid, would generate more than $150 million in profits for Burford and more than $100 million in balance sheet profits in a single month."

The company's stock, which trades on London's AIM exchange for smaller businesses, ticked upwards on the news, rising over 3% over the course of trading Monday.

In addition to its $1.6 billion in new commitments, Burford said that it deployed $1.1 billion to investments over the course of 2019, matching its tally for the previous year. In March 2019, Burford announced a total of $2.6 billion in commitments over the previous two years. That figure was accompanied by a 23% increase in operating profit over 2018.

This year, the company chose to emphasize a jump in its cash proceeds, which rose 23%, and the fact that it posted a record low $6 million in losses across its litigation portfolio, compared to $21 million the previous year.

"We focus on cash, and the best value outcome for shareholders from our investments, rather than managing realisations to an accounting year-end," the company said in its announcement. "We can't control when courts rule or matters resolve—and in many instances we make more money from delay because of the pricing structure of our legal finance assets."

Burford and its peers in the commercial litigation finance arena have recently been pushing a narrative that corporations are increasingly receptive to using outside capital to advance lawsuits, as demonstrated in a report released by the company in June. The company pointed iMonday to a $75 million monetization for a Fortune 100 company as an example.

Burford's value plunged by roughly half after the short-selling attack by Muddy Waters in August, but the company's stock has traded relatively steadily since then. It reassigned its finance chief, Bogart's spouse, to a new role that month, and announced a number of new management roles in January.

The attack also prompted a securities class action lawsuit against Burford in New York, which was dismissed in December. The company is currently investigating claims of market manipulation and suspicious trading against Muddy Waters and has asked a London judge to weigh in.

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