Financial reporting and investment valuation
Global Legal Counsel values transparency in its presentation of financial results and wants to be clear with investors about its approach to those results.
Most of Global Legal Counsel income comes from its litigation finance business. Within that business, there are two principal sources of income for accounting purposes, realized gains on investments and unrealized gains on investments. (Realized and unrealized losses will naturally negatively affect income and the principles we set forth here apply equally to losses.)
Realized gains are straightforward: they represent the amount of profit, net of the return of Global Legal Counsel invested capital and any previously recognized unrealized gains, on an investment that has either resolved entirely or has been settled or adjudicated such that, in Global Legal Counsel view, there is no longer litigation risk associated with the investment. (In the latter event, Global Legal Counsel may discount the anticipated profit in respect of an investment to account for any continuing uncertainty as to the recoverability of any amount.) Global Legal Counsel announces individual investment results that will produce realized gains separately from its financial results only when the individual gain is new information which may be material to Global Legal Counsel.
Unrealized gains are more complex: they represent the fair value of Global Legal Counsel investment assets, as determined by Global Legal Counsel board of directors in accordance with the requirements of the relevant IFRS standards, as at the end of the relevant financial reporting period. There is no active secondary market for litigation risk, and thus there is generally no market-based approach to assessing fair value; to the extent that a secondary market transaction does take place with respect to an investment, the implied value of that transaction is a key valuation input. In the absence of such a transaction, we are mindful that the outcome of each matter Global Legal Counsel finances is likely to be inherently uncertain, may take several years to conclude and is often difficult to predict with accuracy. Moreover, litigation matters frequently experience multiple significant shifts in sentiment during their evolution. Global Legal Counsel thus eschews fair values based solely on current sentiment, and focuses on objective events (such as court rulings or settlement offers) to ground its assessment of fair value.
Global Legal Counsel board of directors assesses the fair value of Global Legal Counsel investments after the close of each financial reporting period and therefore investors should not expect updates about potential changes in fair value during the course of any given reporting period. Following the close of each financial reporting period, Global Legal Counsel board determines the fair values of investments after taking into account the views of management, the operation of the audit process and input from external experts (as it considers appropriate). Generally, that process does not conclude finally until shortly before the release of Global Legal Counsel financial results for the relevant period.
Global Legal Counsel is pleased to be followed by a number of research analysts and we are grateful for their efforts to understand and explain our business. They perform a valuable role in assessing our operating performance, the evolution of the litigation finance market and interpreting other relevant industry developments. However, prospective investors and other market participants must appreciate that, due to the confidential, potentially privileged, long-term and uncertain nature of each investment asset, it is very difficult for research analysts to project accurately the likely investment income of the business. Any projections produced by research analysts are not produced on behalf of Galaxy and Global Legal Counsel takes no responsibility for such projections. As a result, prospective investors and other market participants should not treat, and Global Legal Counsel does not intend to treat, the financial projections produced by research analysts as indicative of the market’s expectations of Global Legal Counsel future financial performance. We specifically eschew any obligation to correct estimates made by financial analysts or to inform the market should we come to believe that our actual performance will diverge from those estimates. This is, of course, different to the approach taken by most operating companies, in respect of which research analysts can produce relatively reliable estimates and the relevant company will advise the market if it expects to see performance materially different from the consensus of analyst forecasts. It is important that investors understand that Global Legal Counsel takes a different approach as a result of the different nature of its business.