Burford Capital Ltd (BUR) 2026 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Hello and welcome to the Burford Capital second-quarter 2026 financial results conference call and webcast. (Operator Instructions)

各位好，歡迎參加 Burford Capital 2026 年第二季財務業績電話會議與網路直播。(接線員指示)

I would now like to turn the conference over to Josh Wood, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.

現在我想把會議交給投資人關係主管 Josh Wood。您可以開始了。

Thank you, Sarah. Good morning, everyone. We hope you're all enjoying a nice summer, and thank you for taking time to join us today to discuss Burford's second-quarter results. On the call, we have our Chief Executive Officer, Chris Bogart; our Chief Investment Officer, Jonathan Molot; and our Chief Financial Officer, Jordan Licht.

謝謝你，Sarah。各位早安。希望大家都在享受美好的夏日，也感謝各位撥冗參加今天的會議，一同討論 Burford 的第二季業績。今天與會的有我們的執行長 Chris Bogart；投資長 Jonathan Molot；以及財務長 Jordan Licht。

Earlier this morning, we posted a detailed earnings presentation, which we'll refer to during the call, we also filed our Form 10-Q. If you've not already, you can find those materials on our investor relations website at investors.burfordcapital.com. Before we get started, just a reminder that today's call may contain forward-looking statements that involve certain risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed during the call.

今天稍早，我們已上傳一份詳細的財報簡報，通話期間我們會引用；我們也已提交 Form 10-Q。若您尚未取得，可至我們的投資人關係網站 investors.burfordcapital.com 查閱相關資料。在開始之前提醒各位，今天的電話會議可能包含前瞻性陳述，涉及若干風險、不確定性及其他因素，可能導致實際結果與通話中討論內容有重大差異。

For information regarding these risk factors, please refer to our earnings materials relating to this call posted on our website, our filings with the SEC. We'll also be referring to certain non-GAAP financial measures during the call. Please refer to today's earnings materials and our filings with the SEC for additional information, including reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures.

關於這些風險因素的資訊，請參閱我們網站上與本次電話會議相關的財報資料，以及我們向 SEC 提交的文件。通話中我們也會提及若干非 GAAP 財務衡量指標。請參閱今日的財報資料及我們向 SEC 提交的文件，以取得更多資訊，包括將這些非 GAAP 指標與最直接可比的 GAAP 指標進行調節的對照表。

And without further delay, I'll turn the call over to Chris.

事不宜遲，我把電話交給 Chris。

Thanks very much, Josh, welcome, everybody. Just before we started, I was reflecting with John that we've been doing earnings calls now for 17 years together at Burford. And I think on probably almost every single one of those calls, we have said that we run this business on a cash basis, that cash is what's important to us, and litigation at the end of the day meanders through its process until it ultimately gets to cash.

非常感謝你，Josh，歡迎各位。在開始之前，我剛和 John 回想，我們在 Burford 一起做財報電話會議至今已 17 年。我想在幾乎每一次通話中，我們都說過我們以現金基礎經營這門生意，現金對我們最重要，而訴訟最終會在其流程中曲折推進，直到最後轉化為現金。

On that basis, we had a really good quarter. We brought in a good amount of cash, significantly more than we've done in the recent past. We have lots of liquidity, and that translates into real flexibility for us on the balance sheet with more than $700 million in the bank. I'll talk a little bit more, and Jordan will as well, about the balance sheet later in our presentation.

基於這一點，我們本季表現非常好。我們帶回了相當可觀的現金，明顯高於近期水準。我們擁有充足的流動性，這也轉化為資產負債表上的實質彈性，銀行存款超過 7 億美元。稍後在簡報中，我會再多談一些，Jordan 也會就資產負債表進一步說明。

But what that does, the combination of cash on hand and cash generation gives us real optionality for this business. And what you'll see on this slide, and I'm on slide 8, what you'll see on this slide are our priorities. Cash generation from the portfolio. We're excited that the portfolio seems to have some momentum, and after various periods in the doldrums, still recovering from the pandemic, unbelievably, we see some real progress.

但這樣的結果——手上現金與現金創造能力的結合——為我們的業務帶來真正的選擇權與彈性。各位在這張投影片（我在第 8 頁）看到的是我們的優先事項。來自投資組合的現金回收。我們很振奮，投資組合似乎正在累積動能；在經歷一段低迷期、仍在從疫情中復原（令人難以置信）之後，我們看到一些實質進展。

Strong liquidity and balance sheet management and continued growth of the business. We're excited about where we are and about what the months ahead portend for the business. On slide 9, we've given you a few developments that have happened since the official close of the quarter.

強勁的流動性與資產負債表管理，以及業務的持續成長。我們對目前的狀態以及未來幾個月對業務的意涵感到振奮。在第 9 頁投影片，我們提供了幾項在季度正式結束後發生的進展。

We've done this from time to time, a snapshot of developments when there have been some significant levels of activity after the formal close of a period. And so what you see here is what I was talking about in terms of us having some excitement around momentum in the quarter. We had a strong arbitration result in a mining case that has been public and that people have been following for a while. This is a couple of African arbitration matters.

我們不時會這麼做：當在某一期間正式結束後仍有相當程度的重要活動時，提供一個進展快照。因此各位在此看到的，就是我所說本季動能令人振奮的例子。我們在一宗已公開、且外界關注一段時間的礦業案件中取得強勁的仲裁結果。這涉及幾件非洲的仲裁事項。

The arbitral tribunal gave us an award, gave our client an award of more than $600 million. If that award were paid in full by Cameroon, we'd be entitled to $200 million or so of it. And what that also does is effectively rightsize that entire portfolio. That was a two-case portfolio of cases against Cameroon and Congo. The Congo case, somewhat bizarrely from our perspective, didn't succeed in arbitration, although there's a pending appeal for that case. So that's a cross-collateralized portfolio, where the win will, if paid, make a huge difference to Burford.

仲裁庭作出裁決，判給我們的客戶超過 6 億美元的裁決金。若喀麥隆全額支付該裁決金，我們可取得其中約 2 億美元。此外，這也等同於為整個投資組合重新校準規模。那是一個由兩件針對喀麥隆與剛果的案件所構成的兩案投資組合。從我們的角度看有些離奇的是，剛果案在仲裁中未獲勝訴，儘管該案仍有待審上訴。因此這是一個交叉擔保（cross-collateralized）的投資組合；若該勝訴案獲得支付，將對 Burford 產生巨大影響。

We also, and the rest of this hasn't been publicly announced, we have a sizable US jury verdict during the month that again, if paid in full, would come close to $100 million for Burford. In Germany, we are a significant player in the German legal finance space, as many of you know, and we've been operating in Germany for quite some time. It's our largest market in continental Europe.

此外，其餘部分尚未公開宣布：我們在本月取得一項規模可觀的美國陪審團裁決；若全額支付，Burford 可接近取得 1 億美元。在德國，如各位所知，我們是德國法律融資市場的重要參與者，且在德國營運已相當長一段時間。德國是我們在歐陸最大的市場。

And there has been a fair bit of litigation in Germany, litigation and consideration in the civil courts of just exactly how litigation finance and group claims are going to work. And Germany is not the fastest place in the world in terms of making things through the court process and getting to decisions.

而德國一直有相當多的訴訟，以及民事法院對於訴訟融資與集體（群體）請求究竟將如何運作的審理與研議。就法院程序推進與作出裁決而言，德國並不是世界上最快的地方。

And so we're delighted that after some years of litigation, the German Supreme Court, which is the highest court in Germany, released a decision resolving in our favor the ability to bring a series of cases using what is called there the assignment model, which opens the door to cases that are already on file and already have been percolated there with damages claims of more than $0.5 billion dollars and giving us a really valuable future precedent.

因此我們很高興，經過數年的訴訟後，德國聯邦最高法院（德國最高法院）發布判決，支持我們的立場，確認可使用當地所稱的「讓與模式」（assignment model）來提起一系列案件；這為已立案、且已在當地醞釀推進、損害賠償請求總額超過 5 億美元的案件打開大門，並為我們帶來極具價值的未來判例。

And then back in the US, as many of you know, we have a number of portfolios with large law firms. We've had one that has had quite a bit of activity this year, not only has it had cash activity, but we've had better than expected outcomes as we've been going through that portfolio. And then, this didn't even make the slide, but just yesterday, and this has been covered in the press today, you'll see it on Bloomberg and on Reuters.

接著回到美國，如各位所知，我們與多家大型律師事務所有多個投資組合。其中有一個今年活動相當頻繁：不僅有現金回收活動，且在推進該投資組合的過程中，我們取得了優於預期的結果。另外，這甚至沒有列在投影片上：就在昨天，而且今天媒體已有報導，各位會在 Bloomberg 與 Reuters 上看到。

The English CAT, the Competition Appeal Tribunal, certified a $5 billion claim -- a GBP5 billion claim, I should say, against Google on behalf of UK businesses that were overcharged for their search advertising. It's been publicly disclosed that we're funding that claim on a multiple basis, and so that will take some time now to go through the rest of the process, but that's a major step forward in that case, and you'll see news about it in the press.

英國 CAT（競爭上訴審裁處，Competition Appeal Tribunal）核准（certified）了一項 50 億美元的請求——更精確地說，是 50 億英鎊（GBP5 billion）——針對 Google 的索賠，代表因搜尋廣告被超額收費的英國企業提出。已公開披露我們以倍數（multiple）計價的方式為該請求提供資金，因此接下來仍需一段時間走完後續程序，但這是該案向前邁出的重大一步，媒體也會有相關報導。

I'm not highlighting these to say that these are the only things that have happened in the portfolio. They're not. The portfolio remains active, and active in both directions. As ever, we have successes and we have disappointments. But happily, the successes continue to outnumber the disappointments considerably.

我強調這些並不是要說投資組合中只發生了這些事。並非如此。投資組合仍然活躍，而且是雙向的活躍。一如往常，我們有成功，也有令人失望的結果。但令人欣慰的是，成功的案例仍大幅多於失望的案例。

The core point from all of this is to show that we have a big, diversified portfolio of litigation that is in active operation in court systems all over the world. And that portfolio is diversified. It's hundreds of cases, not just a few large cases. If you turn to slide 10, you'll see an example, you'll see some data about that diversification.

所有這些的核心重點在於說明：我們擁有一個龐大且多元分散的訴訟投資組合，正在全球各地的法院體系中積極運作。而且該投資組合是分散的。它包含數百件案件，而不只是少數幾件大型案件。如果各位翻到第 10 頁投影片，將會看到一個例子，以及一些關於這種分散性的數據。

So what we've done here, and I don't think that we've done this before, but if you look at the graphic on the right, we have taken our modeled realization numbers that you've seen in the past and we've segmented them effectively by size. And what you can see there is that we're not dependent on any one big asset. That instead, we've built this rather remarkable global portfolio that has many different things moving through the process, and many of those can be significant contributors to cash and liquidity here.

所以我們在這裡所做的，我想我們以前沒有這樣做過，但如果你看右邊的圖表，我們把你過去看過的、我們模型化的實現數字，按規模有效地做了分段。而你在那裡可以看到的是，我們並不依賴任何單一的大型資產。相反地，我們建立了一個相當卓越的全球投資組合，有許多不同的項目在流程中推進，其中不少都可能在現金與流動性方面作出重要貢獻。

It's just somewhat vexing that in addition to the usual unpredictability of litigation timing, that we have had a somewhat slower than average approach to this. That level of diversification that you can see in the graphic, I think, is really very compelling. Now when people see that modeled number there in the middle of that circle, the 110% ROIC, and then they see the actual 82% performance that we've generated historically, they reasonably ask about that disconnect.

令人有點困擾的是，除了訴訟時點一如既往地難以預測之外，我們這次的進展也比平均水準稍慢一些。我認為，你在圖表中看到的那種分散程度確實非常有說服力。現在，當人們看到圓圈中間那個模型數字——110% 的 ROIC——再看到我們歷史上實際產生的 82% 表現時，他們合理地會問這之間為何會有落差。

And if you turn to slide 11, we've done a little snippet of analysis that goes beyond the basic historical data that we have historically shown you. The reality is one number does not tell the story in this business. And so we thought we would dive a little bit deeper to show you why we remain optimistic about this portfolio and its future performance. So this is just one component of what's in there.

如果你翻到第 11 張投影片，我們做了一段小小的分析，超越了我們過去一向向各位展示的基本歷史數據。事實上，在這個業務裡，一個數字無法說明全部故事。因此我們想再深入一點，向各位說明為什麼我們仍對這個投資組合及其未來表現保持樂觀。這只是其中的一個組成部分。

But what you can see there, if you look at the chart on the left and the graphic on the right, is that very large deals tend to produce lower returns on invested capital, lower ROICs. And that's not surprising because we price to risk, and we're generally unwilling to put massive amounts of capital to work in very high-risk cases. We're just not enthusiastic, quite obviously, about putting $200 million out the door and losing it in a binary risk case.

但你可以看到，如果你看左邊的圖表和右邊的圖示，非常大型的交易往往會帶來較低的投入資本報酬率，也就是較低的 ROIC。這並不令人意外，因為我們是按風險定價，而且一般不願意在高風險案件中投入巨額資本。很顯然，我們並不熱衷於把 2 億美元投出去，然後在一個二元風險案件中把它輸光。

And so when we do big cases like that, while they may well produce nice nominal cash profits and strong IRRs, they do have a tendency to bring down our aggregate ROICs because their ROICs are a little bit lower than our sort of historical averages, and they're quite large in the computation. So if you just take these six assets alone out of the historical ROIC computation, it goes from 82% to 99%.

因此，當我們做這類大型案件時，雖然它們很可能帶來不錯的名目現金利潤與強勁的 IRR，但它們確實傾向於拉低我們的整體 ROIC，因為它們的 ROIC 會略低於我們的歷史平均水準，而且在計算中占比很大。所以如果你僅把這六項資產從歷史 ROIC 的計算中剔除，ROIC 就會從 82% 提升到 99%。

So you can't just, I think, look at the one historical number representing 17 years of history, and you do have to look at the size of cases, a whole bunch of dynamics. As many of you know, we provide extraordinarily detailed data about the portfolio in our website table, and that's where we get these kinds of insights.

所以我認為，你不能只看一個代表 17 年歷史的單一歷史數字；你必須看案件規模以及一大堆動態因素。如各位所知，我們在網站的表格中提供了極其詳細的投資組合數據，而我們正是從那裡獲得這類洞見。

Now when we're talking about these large and somewhat lower returning deals, while we remain very committed to growth in this business, I will say that one thing that we have done in response to the YPF events earlier this year and the market feedback around liquidity, is we have somewhat reduced our willingness to do some of these very large but only moderately profitable deals, just with an eye to balancing growth on the one hand and liquidity and de-leveraging on the other.

現在，談到這些大型且報酬相對較低的交易，雖然我們仍非常致力於推動這項業務的成長，但我想說的是，針對今年稍早的 YPF 事件以及市場對流動性的回饋，我們已在某種程度上降低了對部分「規模很大但僅屬中度獲利」交易的意願，目的是在一方面的成長、以及另一方面的流動性與去槓桿之間取得平衡。

Turning to slide 12, this is our usual slide about new business. You can see some of the impact of what I've just described on the mix of new business. So if you just look at the headline commitment number, which as I've said before is not the number that we look at internally. But that number is below the 2025 run rate. But you have to look at the mix here.

翻到第 12 張投影片，這是我們一貫用來說明新業務的投影片。你可以看到我剛才描述的情況，對新業務組合帶來的一些影響。所以如果你只看承諾額的標題數字——我之前也說過，這不是我們內部用來看的數字——那個數字低於 2025 年的運行水準。但你必須看這裡的組合。

And if you look at the red bar, which is presumably the most profitable thing that we do. The red bar there has well more than doubled, while the blue bar went down very significantly. So if you were to look at our internal metrics, you would not see a decline of the visual kind that you see on the right-hand top side of this graphic, because the relative profitability of those bars is significantly different.

如果你看紅色長條，那大概是我們所做業務中最具獲利性的部分。紅色長條已經增加到遠超過翻倍，而藍色長條則大幅下降。因此，如果你看我們的內部指標，你不會看到像這張圖右上方所呈現的那種視覺化下滑，因為這些長條的相對獲利性差異非常大。

And so as you can see there, we've well more than doubled the size of the red bar while significantly reducing the size of the blue bar. That's consistent with what I was just describing before, and also probably, I would say, a little bit of firm stasis for a little while after the YPF decision. And John is going to chime in now and have a little bit more commentary about the portfolio.

所以如你所見，我們把紅色長條的規模提高到遠超過翻倍，同時大幅縮小了藍色長條的規模。這與我剛才描述的情況一致，而且我也會說，在 YPF 裁決之後，可能也出現了一段時間的相對停滯。接下來 John 會加入，並對投資組合再多做一些評論。

Thanks, Chris, and thanks to you all for joining. I'll be brief. I really just want to hit two of the themes that Chris introduced and flesh out what they mean from my perspective for the state of the portfolio and the state of the new business machine. As Chris said, he highlighted a few successes we've had in July with a jury verdict, an arbitration win, a Federal Court of Justice ruling, another law firm portfolio, and then yesterday, a UK ruling.

謝謝你，Chris，也謝謝各位參與。我會簡短說明。我主要想聚焦在 Chris 提出的兩個主題，並從我的角度補充它們對投資組合現況以及新業務機器運作狀態的意義。如 Chris 所說，他提到我們在 7 月取得的一些成功，包括陪審團裁決、仲裁勝訴、聯邦最高法院（Federal Court of Justice）的裁定、另一個律師事務所投資組合，以及昨天的一項英國裁決。

Those are just examples of things that we're seeing a lot of activity in the portfolio. And so looking historically, would people rather that cash had come more quickly and there hadn't been delays? Certainly that's the case. But when I look at the portfolio today and see what it's poised to deliver in the future, it really is active and a lot of stuff is happening.

這些只是例子，顯示我們在投資組合中看到大量活動。因此回頭看歷史，人們是否會希望現金更快到位、而且沒有延遲？當然會。但當我看今天的投資組合，並看到它未來可望交付的成果時，它確實非常活躍，很多事情正在發生。

As Chris said, there could be negative as well as positive developments, but the positive ones continue to outweigh the negative quite significantly. And the underwriting teams and the case management teams are just very busy with all the developments, many of which are quite positive. And so I'm pretty bullish on the portfolio, and happy that we're able to share some examples of why there is that sentiment.

如 Chris 所說，可能會有負面也可能有正面進展，但正面因素持續且相當明顯地超過負面因素。承保團隊與案件管理團隊正忙於處理各種進展，其中許多都相當正面。因此我對投資組合相當看多，也很高興我們能分享一些例子，說明為什麼會有這樣的感受。

The second thing is on the new business machine. Chris mentions that we have been able to put on very attractive, from a risk-reward perspective, new deals over the past quarter. And I want to hammer home why we are positioned to be able to do that. We have developed deep relationships with law firms, with counterparties who continue to bring us their opportunities where they need financing for litigation portfolios or for individual litigations.

第二點是關於新業務機器。Chris 提到，過去一季我們能夠承作一些從風險報酬角度來看非常具吸引力的新交易。我想強調我們為什麼能夠處於這樣的位置、做到這件事。我們與律師事務所建立了深厚關係，也與交易對手建立關係；他們持續把機會帶給我們，因為他們需要為訴訟投資組合或單一訴訟提供融資。

And having those relationships means we are the go-to provider of finance in a number of markets. As Chris mentioned, we have activity globally across various jurisdictions. And having spent the years building up those relationships, that knowhow, and repeat client base, we have the ability to attract and close these deals that, from my perspective, are quite attractive.

而擁有這些關係，意味著我們在多個市場是首選的融資提供者。如 Chris 所提到，我們在全球各個司法管轄區都有活動。多年來建立起這些關係、專業知識（knowhow）以及重複客戶基礎，使我們有能力吸引並完成這些在我看來相當有吸引力的交易。

So the team is very busy, both with an active, productive portfolio and with some great new opportunities that we continue to add into the portfolio. So on both fronts, I'm very happy with where we are today. And with that, I'll pass it back to Chris.

因此團隊非常忙碌，一方面是活躍且具產出的投資組合，另一方面也有一些很棒的新機會，我們持續把它們加入投資組合。所以在這兩個面向上，我對我們目前的狀況都非常滿意。接下來我把時間交回給 Chris。

Thanks, John. Just to carry on that theme for a second, for those of you who are Financial Times readers, you'll note that one of the top stories in the FT today concerns law firms, law firm structure, and the desire of US law firms, many of them, to have some sort of more flexible equity capital structure.

謝謝你，John。延續這個主題再說一下，對於各位《金融時報》（Financial Times）的讀者，你們會注意到今天 FT 的頭條之一是關於律師事務所、律師事務所的結構，以及許多美國律師事務所希望擁有某種更具彈性的股權資本結構。

And this is a theme that has been running for a while, one of the themes you'll take away from the article is that while there's a strong demand for these kinds of solutions, they're not really appearing in the market quite yet. We've talked about that in the past, that's consistent with our experience. The reason I raise the article is because you will note that there is only one legal finance firm mentioned in that article at all, and that's [perfect].

而這一直是一個持續了一段時間的主題；你從這篇文章帶走的其中一個重點是，儘管市場對這類解決方案有強勁需求，但它們其實尚未真正出現在市場上。我們過去談過這點，這也與我們的經驗一致。我之所以提到這篇文章，是因為你會注意到，文章中提到的法律融資公司其實只有一家，而那就是[perfect]。

We are -- We have reached the point where we are the undisputed market leader, standing head and shoulders above anybody else in the commercial legal finance area. And that's why we see the kinds of opportunities that John was just describing.

我們——我們已經走到這一步：在商業法律融資領域，我們是無可爭議的市場領導者，遠遠領先於任何其他人。這也是為什麼我們能看到 John 剛才所描述的那類機會。

Let's turn to slide 15. We regularly get the question about older investments. And the question basically is, what's going on with these? Are these ever going to produce anything, or are these just sort of dead in the water, waiting for ultimately them to become and killed off? We thought we'd do a little analysis for you to show why that's just absolutely not the case.

我們來看第 15 頁投影片。我們經常被問到關於較早期投資的問題。而問題基本上是：這些到底怎麼了？這些最終會產出任何成果嗎？還是說它們只是某種程度上停滯不前，等著最後被終止並被一筆勾銷？我們想做一點分析給各位看，說明為什麼情況絕對不是如此。

What this graphic does is, the black bar on the left-hand side shows you the state of the portfolio in terms of deployed cost at the end of 2022 as to pre-pandemic vintages. And at that point, we had almost $1 billion deployed in those vintages. Since then, a lot has happened, as you can see. We've continued to put money into these cases, more than a quarter billion dollars more.

這張圖表所呈現的是：左側的黑色長條顯示截至 2022 年底、就疫情前批次（vintages）而言，投資組合在已投入成本（deployed cost）上的狀態。在那個時間點，我們在那些批次中已投入接近 10 億美元。從那之後，如你所見，發生了很多事情。我們持續對這些案件投入資金，又多投入了超過 2.5 億美元。

We've taken out close to $1 billion in realizations. This is all in this middle three-and-a-half-year period. And we still have a fair bit of deployed capital to go. So we think that those cases, that portfolio, that portion of the portfolio is still very strong and is continuing to produce. It's just regrettable that the duration has lengthened because of the systemic delays that we have seen across the court system. But we're still a lot faster than the average private equity deal.

我們已實現回收（realizations）接近 10 億美元。這些都發生在中間這三年半的期間內。而我們仍然還有相當一部分已投入資本尚待回收。因此我們認為，那些案件、那個投資組合、以及投資組合中的那一部分仍然非常強勁，並且持續產出。只是很遺憾，因為我們在整個法院系統看到的系統性延宕，導致存續期間拉長。但我們仍然比一般私募股權交易快得多。

And the reality is, those cases are going to come to an end. They are not at all just sitting there waiting to be put out of their misery. The other thing I would highlight for you, this is reflected in the last bullet point, but in case it's too cryptic, let me just amplify it. When we do portfolio deals with law firms, we basically sign law firms up to a world where we will then do a series of cases down the road with them.

而現實是，那些案件終將結束。它們絕不是就那樣擺著，等著被「解除痛苦」而被處理掉。我還想特別提醒各位一點：這在最後一個重點項目中有所反映，但如果太過隱晦，我再補充說明。當我們與律所做投資組合交易時，本質上是讓律所加入一個框架：之後我們會在未來與他們陸續進行一系列案件的合作。

Sometimes those portfolios are in existence when we close the deal, but often they come into existence later. And they're often cross-collateralized in structure. So what that means is that if we have signed a portfolio deal with a law firm in, let's say, 2019, and that law firm came along in 2023 with a further case to put into that portfolio, that 2023 case is going to show up as part of the 2019 vintage because of the cross-collateralization element of it.

有時候在我們完成交易時，那些投資組合就已經存在，但更多時候是之後才形成。而且它們在結構上往往採用交叉擔保（cross-collateralized）。這表示：如果我們在例如 2019 年與某家律所簽了一個投資組合交易，而該律所在 2023 年又帶來一個新增案件要放入該投資組合，那麼由於交叉擔保的因素，這個 2023 年案件會被歸入 2019 年的批次（vintage）之中。

And so it's just not the case that these are sort of old and cold assets, which is what some people occasionally ask us about. We're very bullish on all components of this portfolio. So let me switch gears on slide 14 and talk a little bit about liquidity and the balance sheet. I'm going to start with the statistics on the left-hand side. The basic message here is that we are very comfortable with our liquidity and with the ability of the portfolio to generate robust levels of cash.

因此，這些並不是某些人偶爾會問我們的那種「又老又冷」的資產。我們對這個投資組合的所有組成部分都非常看好。那麼我切換到第 14 頁，談一談流動性與資產負債表。我先從左側的統計數據開始。這裡的核心訊息是：我們對自身的流動性，以及投資組合產生強勁現金水準的能力，都感到非常放心。

We're sitting with $733 million in the bank. We have only $400 million of debt due within the next almost four years. We could theoretically just turn around and pay that debt off tomorrow if we chose to do that. We have -- If you think about this in terms of coverage, and again, this reflects my focus on cash and not on arcane GAAP balance sheet metrics.

我們銀行帳上有 7.33 億美元。在接下來將近四年內到期的債務只有 4 億美元。理論上，如果我們選擇這麼做，明天就可以回頭把那筆債務全部還清。我們——如果你從覆蓋倍數的角度來看，而且再次強調，這反映了我對現金的關注，而不是對晦澀的 GAAP 資產負債表指標的關注。

We have a significant amount of what I think of as asset coverage for that debt. We're anticipating a significant flow of cash realizations from our portfolio, and that number that you see there does not include anything from YPF. So we are covered, if you want to think of it in those terms, 2.3 times on the existing debt. And we're pretty comfortable with that state of affairs, especially when you consider the level of cash that the portfolio generates, even in years that we have found to be somewhat annoyingly slow.

我們對那筆債務有相當可觀、我稱之為資產覆蓋（asset coverage）的支撐。我們預期投資組合將帶來可觀的現金回收流入，而你在那裡看到的數字並未包含任何來自 YPF 的項目。所以如果你要用這種方式來看，我們對現有債務的覆蓋倍數是 2.3 倍。我們對這樣的狀況相當安心，尤其是當你考量到投資組合所產生的現金水準——即便是在我們覺得進度有點令人煩躁地偏慢的年份也是如此。

And when you talk about slowness, you see those bars at the bottom. Slowness, I suppose, is all relative. On the one hand, this represents a not insignificant increase in the average duration of our [matters]. On the other hand, it's still pretty fast compared to lots of asset classes out there. It's just that you and we have been accustomed to things being faster still. So my conclusion from all of those data points is that we're pretty happy with where we are.

而談到「偏慢」，你會看到底部那些長條。我想「偏慢」終究是相對的。一方面，這代表我們案件[matters]的平均存續期間確實有不小的增加。另一方面，與許多其他資產類別相比，這仍然算相當快。只是你和我們都已經習慣事情原本還能更快。因此，從所有這些數據點得出的結論是：我們對目前所處的位置相當滿意。

That being said, we are certainly aware that the YPF decision was a shock. It was a shock to us inside the business, and it was a shock to the market. We're aware that that has resulted in market anxiety, and it's not an ideal time for the portfolio to be moving somewhat more slowly than one would wish, when at the same time, we have somewhat more leverage than we might wish. And so even if we disagree with the level of appropriate anxiety over that, the fact that it exists comes with real-world consequences for us.

話雖如此，我們當然也清楚，YPF 的裁決是一個衝擊。這對我們公司內部是衝擊，對市場也是衝擊。我們知道這導致了市場焦慮；而當投資組合的進展同時又比人們希望的稍慢、而我們的槓桿又略高於我們希望的水準時，這並不是理想的時點。因此，即便我們不同意市場焦慮的適當程度，但焦慮既然存在，就會對我們帶來現實世界的後果。

For example, the implied yields today from trading in our long-dated debt are higher than we would wish to see and that we think are actually appropriate for the level of risk associated with that debt. Nevertheless, we are creatures of the market, and we're responsive to what the market thinks. And so that means it is prudent for us to do a bunch of things to husband cash, to focus on our operating expenses and our cash outlays, and to drive a de-leveraging program that will sit alongside our growth.

例如，目前市場交易我們長天期債務所隱含的殖利率，比我們希望看到的更高，而且我們認為就該債務所對應的風險水準而言，這樣的殖利率其實並不恰當。然而，我們是市場的產物，也會回應市場的看法。因此，對我們而言，審慎的作法是採取一系列措施來保留現金、聚焦於營運費用與現金支出，並推動一項去槓桿（de-leveraging）計畫，使其與我們的成長並行。

And so we've shown here on the right a couple of things that we've done in terms of reducing operating expenses, husbanding cash, and those continue to be priorities for us inside the business when set against the very comfortable level of liquidity that we think we have. So we're pleased with where we sit, no one should be under any misapprehension that this is not central to the management team's focus every single day. The balance sheet and our liquidity and what we're doing about that.

因此我們在右側展示了幾項我們已採取的措施，包含降低營運費用、保留現金；而在我們認為自身流動性非常充裕的前提下，這些仍將是公司內部的優先事項。所以我們對目前的位置感到滿意，但任何人都不應誤以為：這不是管理團隊每天每一刻的核心關注。資產負債表、我們的流動性，以及我們正在如何處理這些問題。

Let me sum up on slide 15 before turning you over to Jordan. As I said at the outset, we've been doing this for 17 years. We've developed, I think, a demonstrable and enviable track record, both of performance and of leadership and innovation in this industry. We've got a very large, well-diversified portfolio that under any reasonable set of circumstances is going to produce a very significant amount of cash going forward.

在把時間交給 Jordan 之前，讓我在第 15 頁做個總結。如同我一開始所說，我們做這件事已經 17 年了。我認為我們已建立起可被證明且令人稱羨的往績，無論是在績效表現上，還是在這個產業的領導力與創新上。我們擁有一個非常龐大且高度分散的投資組合，在任何合理的情境下，未來都將產生非常可觀的現金。

We've already produced almost $4 billion of cash out of that portfolio, and we've done so with a high degree of performance and with stable and desirable loss rates. And we have demand for our capital and an origination platform just all over the world, which continues to be driven by the fact that law firms are getting away with enormous increases in their pricing to clients, which is just a call to arms for people to pick up the phone and call us.

我們已經從該投資組合中產生了將近 40 億美元的現金，而且是在高績效、且損失率穩定並令人滿意的情況下達成的。同時，我們的資本需求旺盛，且我們的承作平台遍布全球；這股動能持續受到一個因素驅動：律師事務所對客戶大幅提高收費的情況愈發普遍，這等於是在號召大家拿起電話打給我們。

So with that, we appreciate your interest in the business and your forbearance, and Jordan will take you through some numbers, and then we'll take some questions.

因此，我們感謝各位對本業務的關注與包容。接下來 Jordan 會帶各位看一些數字，之後我們會回答一些問題。

Thanks, Chris, and thanks, John. I'm going to jump to slide 17 and walk through some of the high-level metrics. I know Chris talked a lot about the quarter, but we'll still go into a little bit of more depth with respect to the Principal Finance and Asset Management segments. But overall, on page 17, you can see the summary.

謝謝你，Chris，也謝謝你，John。我將直接跳到第 17 張投影片，帶各位快速看一些高層級指標。我知道 Chris 已經談了很多本季的情況，但我們仍會就 Principal Finance 與 Asset Management 兩個部門再深入一些。不過整體而言，在第 17 頁你可以看到摘要。

We had a break-even quarter, just slightly profitable. It's important to note not to try and compare the year-to-date between this year and last year, obviously, given the impact of YPF in the first quarter. So we're going to focus a little bit more on the second-quarter results directly as the comparative. You can see on the net realized gains, beating last year, same time, same with Asset Management income. Chris talked about new business.

本季大致損益兩平，略有獲利。需要特別注意的是，鑑於第一季 YPF 的影響，顯然不應嘗試將今年與去年的年初至今數據直接比較。因此，我們會更聚焦於第二季的結果，作為直接的比較基礎。你可以看到，淨已實現收益優於去年同期，資產管理收入亦同。Chris 也談到了新業務。

Deployments remained steady on the existing book, and our realizations were $94 million compared to $62 million in the same period last year. On the right-hand side, just hitting again on liquidity is strong at $733 million, and then you can see our debt ratios. I'm going to jump straight to page 22 and talk a little deeper about the portfolio.

在既有投資組合上的投放（deployments）維持穩定，而我們的回收／實現（realizations）為 9,400 萬美元，去年同期為 6,200 萬美元。右側再次強調流動性依然強勁，為 7.33 億美元，並且你也可以看到我們的負債比率。我將直接跳到第 22 頁，更深入談談投資組合。

This page has had a slight different makeup in terms of how we used to show it. This is now in its totality. It includes YPF when you look at the total portfolio of about $4.1 billion. The way we break that down is the fair value of the portfolio that you see on the balance sheet, and then our undrawn commitments. Recall our undrawn commitments are split into two, both definitive and discretionary.

這一頁在呈現方式上與我們過去略有不同。現在是以完整口徑呈現。在你看約 41 億美元的總投資組合時，其中包含了 YPF。我們的拆分方式是：資產負債表上所看到的投資組合公允價值，以及我們的未動用承諾額度（undrawn commitments）。請記得，我們的未動用承諾額度分為兩類：確定性（definitive）與酌情性（discretionary）。

Discretionary is similar to the way Chris actually described portfolios in the sense that while we've entered into a partnership with a law firm or a corporate client, there's no obligation to take on the next case if the underwriting proves that it's not worthy. Whereas discretionary is allocated specific to the cases that we've already financed.

酌情性（discretionary）與 Chris 描述投資組合的方式相近：也就是說，雖然我們已與律師事務所或企業客戶建立合作關係，但若承保（underwriting）結果顯示不值得，我們並沒有義務承作下一個案件。而確定性（definitive）則是針對我們已經提供融資的特定案件所配置的額度。

Taking that fair value, though, and breaking it down, you can see our deployed cost of $1.9 billion and then $400-ish million of unrealized gain. That's about a 22% markup, so to speak, on the deployed cost, and that is quite favorable when you think about future earnings power and you compare that to the potential modeled realizations or our historical ROIC. There's plenty of room for incremental revenue to come through as we see milestones and ultimate conclusions.

不過把公允價值再拆開來看，你可以看到我們已投放成本為 19 億美元，另有約 4 億美元的未實現收益。換句話說，這相當於在已投放成本上約 22% 的加價（markup）；當你思考未來獲利能力，並將其與潛在的模型化實現金額或我們歷史 ROIC 相比較時，這是相當有利的。隨著我們看到里程碑事件與最終結案，仍有充足空間讓增量收入逐步反映出來。

The right-hand side is a similar graphic to what you've seen before, which is just the breakdown of the geography as well as the asset type. It just goes to show the breadth of the portfolio compares neatly to the comments Chris had made when showing the modeled realizations and the diversification that we have there. The portfolio is quite large and diverse by a lot of different metrics that you review.

右側是你以前看過的類似圖表，主要是按地理區域以及資產類型的拆分。這也顯示投資組合的廣度，與 Chris 在展示模型化實現金額以及我們的分散化時所做的評論相互呼應。就你所檢視的多項指標而言，這個投資組合規模相當大且多元。

Flipping to page 23, this is the breakdown of how the balance sheet asset moved in the quarter. The income statement up above, I'm going to focus though first on just the left-hand side, which marches the asset forward. You can see deployments pretty much offsetting realizations within the book and moving the asset balance. You have three other items that we historically talk about.

翻到第 23 頁，這裡拆解了資產負債表資產在本季的變動。上方是損益表；不過我會先聚焦在左側，也就是推進資產變動的部分。你可以看到，投放金額大致抵銷了投資組合內的回收／實現，並推動資產餘額變化。另外還有三個我們歷來會談到的項目。

First, there's the passage of time. This is the natural movement forward as assets get closer to their ultimate realization, and we recognize a portion of value associated with that. The offset to that is changes in discount rates, since they're essentially a DCF. Interest rates for this quarter were pretty benign and limited movement, so you didn't see a lot of movement in the asset value.

第一個是時間推移（passage of time）。這是資產隨著更接近最終實現而自然前移的變化，我們會認列與此相關的一部分價值。與之相抵的是折現率的變動，因為本質上它們是 DCF。本季利率相對溫和、變動有限，因此你不會看到資產價值有太多波動。

And then finally, you have milestones and other model impacts. These are the recognizable events or other changes to cases that we see that then is reflected in our models. I think we've covered a lot of the other content in the principal finance section during Chris's remarks, so I'm going to jump quickly to the asset management section, page 30. Overall, Asset Management continues to perform. It produced around $5 million year-to- date in cash.

最後是里程碑事件與其他模型影響。這些是我們觀察到的可辨識事件或案件的其他變化，並反映在我們的模型中。我想在 Chris 的發言中，我們已涵蓋了 principal finance 部分的許多其他內容，因此我將快速跳到資產管理部分，第 30 頁。整體而言，資產管理持續表現良好。年初至今約產生 500 萬美元的現金。

When you compare the Asset Management income, though, on the left-hand side, I'd say we're pretty much right on track with where we were last year to date. The reason for the difference is, well, one, as we've mentioned, many of our older funds have been running off, I wouldn't expect, as we mentioned before, to continue to see management fees.

不過若比較左側的資產管理收入，我會說我們基本上與去年同期進度一致。差異的原因是：第一，如我們提過的，許多較舊的基金正在逐步到期／退出（running off），因此如先前所述，我不預期管理費會持續維持在同樣水準。

The big bump in performance fees we saw last year was actually the flip over of the Advantage Fund hitting some hurdles, and then the first set of performance fees coming in, and that will be a steady intake as that fund continues to perform. And then you can see, obviously, the parity in the relationship that we have with our partner in the BOF-C Fund.

去年我們看到績效費大幅跳升，實際上是因為 Advantage Fund 跨越了一些門檻（hurdles），並開始收取第一批績效費；隨著該基金持續表現，這將會成為穩定的收入來源。此外，你也可以看到我們與 BOF-C Fund 合作夥伴之間關係所帶來的對等分配（parity）。

I'm going to now move to cover some of the other content related to our capital structure and the balance sheet and expenses. On page 32, just real quickly hitting upon cash. The $157 million of cash was the largest in the last five quarters, and obviously one of the peaks as we continue to generate cash from the portfolio. We still also have a due from settlement balance with $122 million outstanding as of the end of the quarter.

接下來我將轉到一些與資本結構、資產負債表以及費用相關的其他內容。在第 32 頁，先很快談一下現金。1.57 億美元的現金是過去五個季度中最高的，也是我們持續從投資組合產生現金之際的其中一個高點。截至本季末，我們仍有 1.22 億美元的「應收結算款」（due from settlement）餘額尚未收回。

On page 33, to quickly hit expenses, I want to go a little bit deeper into some of the comments that Chris had made. The first is when you compare the year-to-date salaries and benefits, and you can see there's a jump in terms of the overall nominal amount. What that reflects predominantly is the fact that we actually did a bit of cost cutting and some changes associated with senior and middle management that captures approximately $10 million of annualized compensation expense, and that's across salaries, cash bonuses, stock, et cetera.

在第 33 頁，快速談費用之餘，我想更深入說明 Chris 先前提到的一些評論。第一，當你比較年初至今的薪資與福利時，可以看到名目金額有所上升。這主要反映我們確實進行了一些成本削減，以及與高階與中階管理層相關的調整，合計約可帶來每年 1,000 萬美元的年化薪酬費用下降，涵蓋薪資、現金獎金、股票等。

The one-time impact of that shows up in a variety of different places. About $5 million, there's a one-time impact that shows up in salaries and benefits. There's an offset to that in other line items with the reversal of some accruals. So the net cost was only about $2 million to achieve that $10 million of annualized compensation expense. The last piece that I want to touch on this page, you can see, well, two pieces. G&A has remained steady. If you look year over year, in fact, slightly lower this year compared to last year.

這些一次性影響會出現在多個不同科目中。約有 500 萬美元的一次性影響反映在薪資與福利。同時，其他科目中因部分應計項目回轉而形成抵銷。因此，為了達成每年 1,000 萬美元的年化薪酬費用下降，淨成本僅約 200 萬美元。本頁最後我想提到的部分，你可以看到——其實有兩點。G&A 維持穩定。若以年對年來看，事實上今年還略低於去年。

And the last piece is the case-related expenditures ineligible for inclusion. What that is, in layman's terms, those are deployments that we no longer believe can be capitalized into the asset. That doesn't mean that the case isn't active or healthy. It just doesn't get put into the asset value and unfortunately comes through the income statement. We talked about that briefly last period in which we had to take -- which we reversed previous expenses.

最後一部分是與案件相關、但不符合納入的支出。用白話來說，這些是我們不再認為可以資本化並計入資產的投入。這並不代表該案件不活躍或不健康。只是它不會被計入資產價值，且不幸的是會反映在損益表中。我們在上一期曾簡要談到這點，當時我們必須進行——我們把先前的費用沖回。

So when you look at that $27 million in its totality, $25 million of that actually represents costs that would have been directly associated with funding the active portfolio. Finally, I'm going to finish on page 34, just to hit on a little bit of the debt piece and just reiterate some of Chris's comments. We have ample cash and marketable securities sitting at $733 million.

因此，當你從整體來看那 2,700 萬美元時，其中 2,500 萬美元其實代表原本會直接與為活躍投資組合提供資金相關的成本。最後，我將在第 34 頁作結，簡單談一下債務部分，並重申 Chris 的一些評論。我們擁有充足的現金與有價證券，金額為 7.33 億美元。

Our leverage ratio is outlined on the right-hand side. And then when you look at the debt outstanding, the weighted average life of the debt is 5.2 years, and that compares favorably on a lot of different metrics, whether it's the pace of concluded assets or relative to the pace of active deployments. And as Chris and John mentioned, we're excited and still feel confident in the portfolio and its ability to continue to generate a healthy cash flow to manage through the debt load.

我們的槓桿比率列在右側。接著看未償債務，加權平均存續期間為 5.2 年；無論以已結案資產的進度，或相對於活躍投入的節奏等多項指標來看，這個數字都相當有利。正如 Chris 和 John 提到的，我們對投資組合感到振奮，並仍然有信心其能持續產生健康的現金流，以管理債務負擔。

That concludes our prepared remarks, and at this point, I'm going to hand over to the operator and Chris to open up for questions.

以上是我們準備好的發言；接下來我將把時間交給接線員與 Chris，開始提問環節。

(Operator Instructions) Timothy D'Agostino, B. Riley Securities.

(接線員指示) Timothy D'Agostino，B. Riley Securities。

Yeah. Thank you for taking the questions this morning. I guess, thinking about the updates regarding the portfolio, whether it be the mining arbitration, the US jury verdict, or the German Supreme Court. While these cases are obviously the timing around it's very hard to kind of tell. Could you just provide us maybe some color on how you internally think about the timelines of those proceeding forward, just so we can think about it until year end and as we look towards the third quarter?

是的。感謝今天早上讓我提問。我想就投資組合的最新進展來問，不論是礦業仲裁、美國陪審團裁決，或德國聯邦最高法院。雖然這些案件的時間點顯然很難判斷。你們能否提供一些看法，說明你們內部如何看待這些案件後續推進的時間表，讓我們在思考到年底以及展望第三季時有個參考？

Yeah. The purpose of giving those kinds of portfolio updates is really to show people that there is momentum in the portfolio. So to -- in other words, to dispel the notion that things are just sort of sitting stagnantly. As John talked about as well, they're just not [though]. So it's not just those handful of examples, but there is a very significant amount of activity going on across the multi-hundred case book that we have.

是的。提供這類投資組合更新的目的，主要是向大家展示投資組合正在推進、具有動能。換句話說，是要打消那種「事情只是停滯不前」的看法。如同 John 也談到的，它們並不是[雖然]。所以不只是那幾個例子；我們手上數百件案件的整體案簿中，有非常大量的活動正在進行。

We're not putting them out there to suggest that those things are the things that will turn into cash between, for example, you said now and the end of the year. Each of those things has some further stages in litigation to go through. But the thing that drives settlements and litigation, first of all, are catalysts.

我們提出這些例子，並不是要暗示例如你所說從現在到年底之間，這些事情就會轉化為現金。每一件都還有一些訴訟程序的後續階段要走。但推動和解與訴訟的因素，首先是催化劑。

And so it's certainly reasonable to think that as you get catalysts in matters, that also opens the door to settlement discussions in a way that the absence of a catalyst seldom does. It's not necessarily that we have our eyes on those cases that we talked about as settlement candidates, but rather other cases where there are settlement discussions going on right now because there were prior catalysts.

因此，合理的推論是：當案件出現催化劑時，也會以一種「缺乏催化劑時很少出現」的方式，打開和解討論的大門。不一定是我們把剛提到的那些案件視為和解候選，而是其他一些案件——因為先前出現過催化劑——目前正進行和解討論。

This whole thing is a continuum, from the beginning of a piece of litigation to the end, where there are points along the way that increase the likelihood of resolution. And that's what our business is all about. As you'll remember, we're close to 80% of our matters ultimately resolving by settlement instead of by final adjudication. But the thing -- this is just common sense.

整件事是一個連續體，從訴訟開始到結束，途中會有一些節點提高解決的可能性。而這正是我們業務的核心。你會記得，我們接近 80% 的案件最終是以和解結案，而不是以最終裁判結案。但重點——這其實只是常識。

If I'm suing you, and I'm looking for a big check from you, the mere fact that I have sued you is not likely to have you reaching for your checkbook, in a way that you weren't prepared to just a few weeks before. So something needs to happen in that lawsuit to make you think that your vulnerability is greater than you perceived it to be when you refused to pay me before we commenced litigation.

如果我告你，並且想從你那裡拿到一大筆支票，僅僅因為我起訴你，並不太可能讓你立刻去拿支票簿——相較於幾週前你還沒準備要付錢的狀態。所以在訴訟中必須發生某些事情，讓你覺得你的脆弱性比你在拒絕付款、我們開始訴訟之前所認知的更高。

And so that's what so much of this is all about, is using the litigation process to get to those catalysts that ultimately drive the settlements. And so a jury verdict is a great example of that. It's relatively uncommon for cases where we win a jury verdict to go all the way to the end of the litigation process and appeal and try to go to Supreme Court and then enforce against assets and get paid by enforcement against assets. That's pretty uncommon. It's not never, but it's pretty uncommon.

因此，這其中很大一部分，就是利用訴訟程序去促成那些最終推動和解的催化劑。陪審團裁決就是很好的例子。在我們贏得陪審團裁決的案件中，真正一路走到訴訟程序終點、經過上訴、試圖上訴到最高法院，然後對資產執行並透過執行取得付款——這種情況相對少見。這並非從未發生，但確實相當少見。

What's more common is that act, that event, will cause a recalibration of the other side's position, and that will drive an economic outcome.

更常見的是，那個行為、那個事件，會促使對方重新校準其立場，進而帶來經濟上的結果。

Okay, great. Thank you so much. And if I could just ask a second question. On the streamlining operating costs noted on the save to comp, I guess, is that the start of broader cuts? I guess, do you see more potential operating cost savings going forward, whether it be through those senior to mid-management cuts? Or is what we're seeing right now the ceiling of what you plan on doing?

好的，很棒。非常感謝。如果可以，我再問第二個問題。關於你們在「save to comp」中提到的精簡營運成本，我想問這是否是更廣泛削減的開始？你們是否認為未來還有更多節省營運成本的空間，例如透過高階到中階管理層的裁減？還是我們現在看到的已經是你們計畫採取措施的上限？

Yeah. Burford's a pretty lean business. It's not as though we have armies of people like you see all these cuts happening at Google and Meta and so on. That's just not the kind of business that we are. We only have somewhere around 160 people right now.

是的。Burford 是一家相當精實的公司。我們並不是那種擁有大批人力的企業，不像你看到 Google、Meta 等公司出現的大規模裁員。那不是我們這類業務的型態。我們目前大約只有 160 名員工。

And so, no, it's not our intention to engage in sort of serial waves of layoffs. What we did do here on a one-time basis was we encouraged some retirements. We streamlined a few functions and so on. I would say the other thing that we pay careful attention to is the extent to which growth requires hiring. And that's a combination of just general operating leverage. And it's also a question of our continuing ability to use technology efficiently.

因此，不，我們無意進行那種一波接一波的裁員。我們這次一次性的作法，是鼓勵部分人員退休。我們也精簡了幾項職能等等。我想另外一點是，我們會非常留意成長在多大程度上需要增聘人手。這一方面是一般性的營運槓桿。另一方面也取決於我們持續有效運用科技的能力。

And both of those things enable us to do more with a smaller rate of growth in headcount than might have been the case even just a year or two ago.

這兩點都讓我們能以較小的人力增長率做更多事情；相較於即便是一、兩年前，情況可能會不同。

Okay, great. Thank you so much for taking the questions this morning.

好的，很棒。非常感謝今天早上讓我提問。

Henry Coffey, Wedbush Securities.

Henry Coffey，Wedbush Securities。

Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. When we talk about cash flow a lot, I was looking at, and I did this in my head, so if I get some numbers wrong, I apologize. It looks like your net -- your cash went up significantly, as you pointed out. Your liquid assets went up significantly, as you pointed out.

早安。感謝讓我提問。我們常談現金流；我在看資料時——我是在腦中算的，所以如果數字有誤先致歉。看起來如你所指出的，你們的淨——你們的現金大幅增加。如你所指出的，你們的流動資產也大幅增加。

When we look at net debt, it actually went up over the last six months by about $100 million. Is that correct? And maybe you could comment on what the more sequential March to June numbers look like.

但當我們看淨負債時，過去六個月其實增加了大約 1 億美元。這樣對嗎？另外也許你可以評論一下，按序列來看 3 月到 6 月的數字大概是什麼樣子。

Yeah, sure. Jordan can certainly chime in there. We did issue debt in January, though. Looking at December to June numbers is going to reflect that.

好的，當然可以。Jordan 當然也可以補充說明。不過我們確實在一月發行了債務。因此看十二月到六月的數字會反映出這一點。

Right.

對。

Jordan?

Jordan？

Yeah, no, I think there was a lot of activity in the June time frame in terms of cleaning up the historical UK issuance and also doing our issuance in January at that moment in time. And so I think in looking at those numbers, if I recall, I'm doing this by memory, so forgive me as well, Henry, but I think we were around $740-ish million of cash and marketable securities at the end of the first quarter. Give or take then $10 million difference when you look quarter over quarter.

是的，我認為在六月那段時間有很多動作，包括清理過去英國的發行事項，以及在當時完成我們一月的發行。所以我想在看那些數字時，如果我沒記錯——我這是憑記憶在講，也請你見諒，Henry——但我記得我們在第一季末大約有 7.4 億美元左右的現金與有價證券。季度對季度相比，大概上下差個 1,000 萬美元。

And obviously, our debt balance would've been the same, if you're looking at the end of the first quarter versus the end of this quarter.

而且很明顯，如果你比較第一季末與本季末，我們的債務餘額應該會是一樣的。

Okay. So there's more balance there. And then this is a much more general question that we can get into over time, you talk about the annualized return over time of the portfolio. How can we adjust that? And I assume that's a gross number based on net realizations. How can we adjust that to account for capital costs, financing costs, and the actual administrative costs and direct costs associated with that very large number?

好的。所以那邊的餘額比較多。接著這是一個更一般性、我們可以隨時間深入的問題：你提到投資組合隨時間的年化報酬。我們要如何調整那個數字？我假設那是以淨實現為基礎的毛數字。我們要如何調整它，以納入資本成本、融資成本，以及與那個非常龐大數字相關的實際管理費用與直接成本？

Yeah, I think it's -- Investors modeled this according to their own prerogatives, basically. The challenge obviously with any business like this, especially a business where a significant amount of our cost goes into making an investment decision in the first place. So we're not -- we don't play an active role in these litigation cases once we invest in them. We certainly are engaged in a case management and monitoring role, but we're not litigating the cases.

是的，我認為投資人基本上會依照各自的偏好來建模。任何像我們這樣的業務的挑戰在於，尤其是我們相當大一部分成本是用在一開始做出投資決策上。因此我們在投資之後並不會在這些訴訟案件中扮演積極角色。我們確實會參與案件管理與監控，但我們不負責訴訟。

And so a significant amount of our human resource activity is sifting through the funnel of cases that are coming in the door and deciding which ones to invest in and making those investment decisions. And then there can be relatively long periods where those cases take no staff time at all. So what that does is create a fairly significant timing mismatch between the incurrence of OpEx style expenses and the cash resolution.

因此，我們相當大一部分的人力資源活動，是在篩選不斷進來的案件漏斗，決定哪些要投資，並做出那些投資決策。接著可能會有相對長的一段期間，這些案件完全不需要任何員工時間。因此就會在營業費用（OpEx）型支出的發生時點與現金解決（回收）之間，造成相當顯著的時間錯配。

And so in a growing business like ours, you can't just look at it on a period-to-period basis. And that is the easy response as well to the people who come along and say, gee, you don't actually generate that much net profit. You have to look at -- you have to sort of assign costs in some methodological way to the back book effectively.

所以在像我們這樣成長中的企業，你不能只用逐期比較的方式來看。這也是對那些說「哎呀，你其實沒有產生那麼多淨利」的人最簡單的回應。你必須用某種方法論，把成本有效地分攤到既有存量組合（back book）上。

Cost of debt is easier because the cost of debt is public. And you can make your own sort of temporal assumptions along the way, influenced by the fact that you can do it pretty accurately because we give you case-by-case resolution data and time to resolution data. I don't know, Jordan, if you want to add anything to that.

債務成本比較容易，因為債務成本是公開的。而且你可以一路做出你自己的時間假設；再加上我們提供逐案的解決數據與解決所需時間數據，因此你其實可以做得相當精準。我不確定 Jordan 你是否要補充。

Yeah, look, I think the only piece is that if you go to our Investor Day about a year and a half or two years ago now, we outlined the way in which we think about unit economics. When we're underwriting today, obviously, there's a duration associated with the back book in the case that it's taken slightly longer than one would've anticipated. Some of those deals, many of them have protections on the back end in terms of rising multiples or backend fee arrangements or interest rate components and so forth.

是的，我想唯一要補充的是，如果你回去看我們大約一年半到兩年前的投資人日（Investor Day），我們有說明我們如何看待單位經濟（unit economics）。我們今天在承作（underwriting）時，顯然會把既有存量組合的存續期間（duration）納入考量，因為有些案件花的時間比原先預期稍長。其中一些交易——其實很多——在後端有保護機制，例如倍數隨時間上升、後端費用安排、利率組成等。

But duration has extended. That thought process around duration though, those go into the underwriting of new cases, and so we do think about unit economics on a very similar basis on a go-forward basis. And so there's that -- that's generally how we think about how to apply the cost of debt and our OpEx into how it flows down into return on equity.

但存續期間確實拉長了。不過，對存續期間的這套思考會納入新案件的承作之中，因此我們在往前看的基礎上，確實以非常類似的方式思考單位經濟。所以大致上，我們就是這樣思考如何把債務成本與營業費用（OpEx）納入，並反映到股東權益報酬（return on equity）上。

All right. Thank you. Thank you very much.

好。謝謝。非常感謝。

Yeah, I'll jump in here. We do have a question that's come in on the webcast, which I'll pose for the team. Can you confirm that the cost of deployed capital on the pre-pandemic cases means that realizations relating to such have produced little or no net profit?

我在這裡補充一下。我們在網路直播上收到一個問題，我來替團隊提出。你們能否確認：對於疫情前案件，已部署資本的成本是否意味著相關實現（realizations）幾乎沒有或完全沒有淨利？

No, I think that's not the right way to look at that dynamic at all. If you look at the return profile of those pre-pandemic cases, and we -- you can sort of intuit it from the slide that I had up earlier, and you can go deeper into the data if you so choose. The return profile of those cases is exactly comparable to the overall portfolio return profile. So we're not seeing a degradation in ROIC for those cases. We may be seeing a little bit of an IRR degradation, just because the passage of time, and we've talked about that before.

不，我認為那完全不是看待這個動態的正確方式。如果你看那些疫情前案件的報酬輪廓——你可以從我先前那張投影片大致推得出來，若你願意也可以再深入看數據——那些案件的報酬輪廓與整體投資組合的報酬輪廓完全可比。所以我們沒有看到那些案件的投資資本報酬率（ROIC）惡化。我們可能看到內部報酬率（IRR）略有下降，主要只是因為時間的推移，我們之前也談過。

And obviously, when you're generating those kinds of high returns, the associated cost certainly does not eat up all of those returns. Our historic weighted average cost of debt is well down in the single digits.

而且很明顯，當你產生那種高報酬時，相關成本當然不會把那些報酬全部吃掉。我們歷史加權平均債務成本遠低於個位數百分比。

So I think it's a quiet August morning here in New York. I think that brings us to an end of both the oral and the webcast questions. So thank you everybody for your time and attention today. And we look forward to reporting to you later this fall on not only the third quarter, but on our continued progress with respect to the balance sheet in the interim. We encourage you to be in touch with us if you have any specific or individualized questions that we didn't touch on today.

所以我想，這裡紐約是個安靜的八月早晨。我想這也讓我們的口頭提問與網路直播提問都告一段落。感謝各位今天撥冗與關注。我們期待在今年秋天稍晚向各位報告，不僅是第三季的結果，也包括我們在此期間就資產負債表持續取得的進展。如果各位有任何今天未觸及的特定或個別問題，也鼓勵與我們聯繫。

Thanks very much and enjoy the rest of the summer, everybody.

非常感謝，也祝各位夏日愉快。

This concludes today's conference call and webcast. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議與網路直播到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷線。