The poor state of the economy hasn’t been bad for everyone, as insolvency litigation financing firm Manolete Partners has returned to profit thanks to the withdrawal of government support for failing businesses during the pandemic.
The AIM-listed company reported an operating profit of £2.5m for the financial year to 31 March, up from a loss of £3.1m in the year before.
This was largely thanks to a £5.5m jump in revenue, which increased 27 per cent to £26.3m.
“These annual results show that Manolete has now recovered strongly from the UK government’s suppression of the UK insolvency sector that prevailed during the Covid period,” said Manolete chief Steven Cooklin.
Manolete hit a record number of 251 case completions throughout the year, and this is only going up, with new case enquiries running 22 per cent ahead of the year so far.
Since 31 March, the group said its in-house legal team had already completed 116 cases with a total value of £11.8m, compared to 93 cases with a total value of just £6.3m.
“This is also reflected in our gross cash receipts where we have already collected £10.3m in the first five months of this financial year, compared to £8.7m for the whole six-month, first half period of the previous financial year,” said Cooklin.
While realised revenue on completed cases did dip 10 per cent to £24.2m, this was due to the previous year having “an exceptionally large, funded case completion of which £4.9m was recorded in realised revenue”.
Adjusting for this outlier, the year saw an 11 per cent jump in realised revenues.
“Widely reported, challenging, multiple, macro-economic factors including: high interest rates, persistent inflationary threats, stretched government balance sheets and global conflicts, provide strong tailwinds and significant momentum for further growth,” added Cooklin.
“As the clear market leader in the UK insolvency litigation finance sector, the company is exceptionally well positioned to take advantage of these conditions.”