LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - The High Court has turned down Burford Capital's attempt to force the London Stock Exchange to hand over trading data to support its claim that its share price was manipulated.
Burford said it would not appeal against the ruling.

The litigation funder claimed that its shares were forced down by trading trickery after US short seller Muddy Waters released damning allegations casting doubt on Burford's financial reporting. The shares fell 60% in two days after the report was published.

Burford went to court in an attempt to force the LSE to reveal the identities of traders it said were responsible for the market manipulation.

The court decided evidence presented by Burford's expert, Joshua Mitts of Columbia University, led to "speculative" conclusions that "spoofing and layering" by traders caused an artificial decline in Burford's shares.

"The fully true statement is that it is impossible to determine from the data Prof Mitts reviewed whether any share order events were or may have been manipulative," the court said in a 104-page decision. "Any claim that there was market manipulation on 6 or 7 August 2019 by reference to Prof Mitts' data analysis is speculative."

Burford said without the trading data from the LSE it was impossible to prove market manipulation, which is why it hired Mitts to support its case. Burford said the court decided it would not have granted its request anyway for reasons including "a risk of damage to public confidence in the FCA [Financial Conduct Authority] as regulator".

The company said without the information from the LSE it could not advance shareholder claims any further. The LSE dismissed Burford's allegations as "completely detached from reality" during the case.

Burford said: "While Burford believes the court's judgment is flawed as a matter of law and deprives shareholders of redress, there is also a limit to the level of effort that it is sensible and appropriate for Burford to expend, and thus Burford does not intend to appeal the court's ruling."

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