The sale was first announced to the market in late January of this year, at which time LawFinance revealed that it had entered into a definitive agreement to sell 100 per cent of shares in its litigation funding business to Legal Equity Partners Pty Ltd (LEP), in a deal that would equate to a debt and cash-free transaction value of approximately $10 million. Moreover, LawFinance would share in 50 per cent of any excess proceeds from funded cases, following repayment of the secured debt.

The decisions to sell JKL, LawFinance said at the time, was because it was “not in a strong enough capital position to constructively remain in and grow the litigation funding business” and because “the amount of debt secured against the cases and the continued requests for further funding of the cases has resulted in a lower probability of recovery than originally envisaged”.

In light of this, the listed entity proclaimed in January, it would need to sell JKL to enable it to continue pursuing the active cases, albeit under new ownership.

LawFinance chief executive Daniel Kleijn said at the time that the sale of JKL was “another step of de-risking the company while retaining a share in the upside, and ensuring our focus remains on businesses that have the potential of generating strong returns for shareholders”.