Assisted in establishing and licencing BLF Management

The Ellex in Lithuania Banking and Finance practice helped bring a new product to the market – establish and license a management company that will specialise in financing legal disputes through the investment fund model.

The project was implemented by partner Ieva Dosinaitė, senior associate Gytė Maleckaitė and associate Domantas Gudonis.

BLF Management will specialise in the management of an investment fund that invests exclusively in legal disputes (litigation and arbitration) in the Baltic states and Eastern and Central Europe. BLF Management, the manager of the new Baltic Litigation Fund, is the first company of its kind in Eastern European countries and just the second in the whole of Europe which has received a licence from a national regulator for this type of activity.

Due to their specific nature (where the managed investments will be related to legal disputes rather than real estate objects or securities, which is common in the market), the processes of the management company had to be put in place taking into consideration the management of specific risks.  Ellex assisted the client in presenting the business model to the Bank of Lithuania and contributed to the preparation of the company’s licensing package, including the development of processes and drafting of all essential policies and rules.

Last week, the Financial Market Supervision Service of the Bank of Lithuania, following a request from the management company BLF Management, approved the rules of the Baltic Litigation Fund – a closed-end investment fund for informed investors established by this company. This step marks the official launch of the fund’s activities.