Our History
Founded in the 1990's by Antony Mitchell, Warburg is a diversified specialty finance consulting company. We assist in the structuring, financing and term securitization of emerging asset classes. We concentrate on providing clients with information about products and services that enhance their ability to provide tax-efficient liquidity to holders of high quality, but often illiquid assets. Warburg has developed a high level of competency in structuring and completing complex transactions in the markets in which it participates given our twenty plus years of experience in the specialty finance arena.
Early 90's
Warburg developed its specialized skills in regard to financing unusual assets as a principal. In the early 1990’s, Warburg, as part of a syndicate of several small firms, participated as a purchaser in auctions of non-performing assets held by the Resolution Trust Company.
Mid - Late 90's
In 1994, Warburg became a consultant to a start-up company, Singer Financial Corporation. Singer was a pioneer in the purchase and refinancing of lottery prize payments. Over the course of the next four years, Warburg played a pivotal role in assisting Singer in becoming the largest purchaser of lottery receivables in the U.S. by providing advice on its set up, business operations and growth strategy.
Warburg also provided crucial support and assistance in negotiating a joint venture between Singer and a NYSE company, Enhance Financial Services Group, Inc. ("Enhance") This joint venture became a quick success, growing to more than 125 employees and purchasing assets totaling more than $300 million per year. In the late 1990’s, Singer was sold to Enhance with strategic consulting provided by Warburg.
21st Century
From 2001-2006, Warburg dedicated our time to advising a specialty finance company, Peachtree Settlement Funding. Peachtree was the largest originator of structured legal settlements, lottery prize receivables and life settlements in the U.S. Peachtree had over $500 million in committed financing and employed more than 185 people in three offices – Boca Raton, Florida, Norcross, Georgia and Bedminster, New Jersey. In addition, Peachtree had developed a network of hundreds of high net worth financial services professionals representing over 20 regional, national and international financial services organizations.
From 2007 to present, Warburg has primarily focused its efforts on Imperial Finance and Trading (“Imperial”), a leading specialty finance company specializing in life settlements and structured settlement receivables and focused on providing liquidity to holders of high quality, but illiquid deferred payment obligations. Obligations purchased by Imperial fall into two principal business lines – life settlements and structured settlements. The company participates in large, highly fragmented markets with predominantly small, under-capitalized competitors, enabling Imperial to be one of the leaders in each of its established markets.
Warburg has provided Imperial with specialized advice on deal origination, deal servicing, business strategy, and accessing funding to finance deals. Imperial utilizes a well-established origination platform and proprietary techniques to identify and qualify prospects. The company further supports its origination efforts with specialized sales teams that navigate consumers through the often complex sales process and effectively converts prospects into new business. In addition, Imperial’s unique and flexible transaction processing and servicing platform can process high volume, small ticket transactions while maintaining the ability to structure complex, large ticket negotiated transactions.
Thanks to assistance provided by Warburg, Imperial has secured financing facilities with large national and global financial institutions, including a hedge fund and an AA rated insurance carrier. In February 2011, Imperial completed its initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol IFT.)