My pal Carson Block of Muddy Waters has savaged Burford (BUR) this moring with a savage report on recent results. His golden prose is below.
Roger Lawson of ShareSoc sent me a present the other day. Nope, not another lawyer’s letter but a copy of his new book “Business Perspective Investing… And why financial numbers are not important when picking shares.” A snappy title if ever there was one. I do think numbers matter but it is not a bad read. To demonstrate what he means, Mr Lawson has listed 17 reasons why he does NOT want to own or buy shares in Burford (BUR) and it is nothing to do with the Muddy Waters affair. The 17 reasons Neil Woodford ignored are:
And so the battle continues. On Monday Burford (BUR) published a new 45 page report defending its uber agggressive accounting policies from attacks led by Carson Block of Muddy Waters. Natch it was on its own website rather than via RNS so there was no need for Nomad sign off. Now Muddy Waters has hit back. It responds.
The latest edition of ShareProphets Radio features an hour long interview with Carson Block of Muddy Waters discussing Burford (BUR) in great detail. In the interests of balance, an investor with a long position, Caro-Kann Capital, has published its detailed rebuttal of Muddy Waters and you can read that report below. On balance I agree with Muddy Waters.
From the FCA's spreadsheet of short positions required to be disclosed to it, the following shows the shorted AIM shares with positions from 2018 and thus far in 2019 (by net short position %, those in bold not on the list at the start of 2019) – and if this position has increased (red), reduced (green) or remained unchanged (black) since last week...
Yesterday Burford (BUR) served up a risible response to questions about the Napo case as I detailed HERE and Drunken Sailor took apart HERE. Today the case in question is that of Epicenter which begs all sorts of questions, notably about a $200 million claim against Burford by its own client!
Bear raider Muddy waters credited ShareProphets reader Drunken Sailor for his work in discovering the Glenmark case fought by Napo and funded by Burford (BUR). Yesterday Burford released a report which tried to explain the seemingly bogus profits booked on Napo in 2013. I tore that release to shreds in a special Tom Winnifrith bearcast HERE. Now Drunken Sailor has posted his response which is devastating. The great man writes:
As I revealed yesterday, the FCA and FRC are both investigating Burford (BUR) following a letter I sent requesting an investigation on August 8. But Burford is Guernsey Registered so there is another regulator which needs to have a butchers. As such I have today written to the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (the tax dodger’s equivalent of the FCA) asking it to launch an enquiry. The letter is below::
PR spinners for Burford (BUR) have responded to the Muddy Waters dossier by getting their poodles in the deadwood press to suggest that the bear raider was up to no good and was being investigated by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. Oh dear..I have shocking and bad news for Burford...
To his credit, Carson Block has credited us fully in his new dossier covering the Napo scandal. The contents will be familiar to our readers having been published here 2 weeks ago. But it has aroused the deadwood press. I have already had one hack on the trombone seeking further clarification. The citical point is that without a Napo win fee, Burford (BUR) would have reported a 2013 loss, not a profit, shortly before getting away a big bond issue. As I noted in a letter to the Nomad Johnny Allison ten days ago "name that case!" Burford's failure to do so is telling. The new Muddy Waters dossier is below:
Drunken Sailor has made another point about AIM-listed Burford (BUR) in the comments boards – this time in response to my story about the recently announced corporate governance changes and listing of Burford which Muddy Waters attacked and Burford said there was nothing wrong. Except it now seems to think there was. Apart from the jibe of panic, Drunken Sailor seems to be wondering about insider trading. Let’s take a look at the facts.
Burford (BUR) does not have to prove it is innocent of the Muddy Waters allegations but the longer it opts NOT to give full disclosure the more suspicions will grow. And perhaps the Oxymorons at AIM Regulation or my friends at the FRC, who I have asked to look at the accounts, may force its hand. In that vein I have written to the Nomad, Jonny Allison at Macquarie asking him to force Burford to come clean. I have cc’d in the Oxymorons and the FRC. The letter is below
From the FCA's spreadsheet of short positions required to be disclosed to it, the following shows the shorted AIM shares with positions from 2018 and thus far in 2019 (by net short position %, those in bold not on the list at the start of 2019) – and if this position has increased (red), reduced (green) or remained unchanged (black) since last week...
Bear raider Muddy Waters has issued a new dossier on Burford (BUR) which we publish in full below. It is a bit different. It is a report by ex CIA spooks QVerity Inc analysis the response of Burford to the original dossier and it concludes that the response was designed to mislead investors. Enjoy.
AIM-listed Burford (BUR) has acted apparently with undue haste to the accusation from Muddy Waters, which is short, that Burford’s Corporate Governance is a joke. Of course, Burford dismissed the claims but seems to have acted anyway. No accusation of panic, then…..
