19th Sep 2014 10:58
LONDON (Alliance News) - Amphion Innovations PLC Friday posted a widened loss in the half-year to the end of June as a result of the value of its investment in Kromek PLC falling.
Amphion is a private equity firm that focuses on investments in the medical and technology sectors, as well as intellectual property.
The company posted a pretax loss of USD8.1 million, widened from a loss of USD3.0 million in the previous year, and revenue declined slightly to USD240,000 from USD264,638. The increased loss was primarily driven by a USD5.8 million fair value loss on investments, said the company.
During the half-year the share price of its investment Kromek fell to 46 pence from from 75.5 pence, leading the value of its holding in the company to fall to USD15.6 million from USD9.8 million a year before. However, since the end of June Kromek's shares have recovered around 10%, Amphion said.
Revenue was lower due to the absence of licensing income from its portfolio company DataTern whilst it continues a legal battle over patents with SAP AG and Microsoft Corp.
The companies took action against DataTern over two database patents, after DataTern accused their end-users of patent infringement, and Microsoft sought to have the patents declared invalid. In December 2012 the US District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered DataTern to stop suing customers of SAP.
DataTern appealed the New York ruling, claiming it lacked jurisdiction, and the claim on its patents was flawed. The Court of Appeals broadly ruled in favour of its position in April.
The company's portfolio company Motif is investigating the possibility of launching an initial public offering in the next few months following high investor interest in the area of antibiotics, particularly tackling antibiotic resistant 'super bugs.'
Portfolio company FireStar has been allowed an additional patent relating to its innovative messaging technology, and portfolio company WellGen made further progress in the development of a functional beverage based on its patented anti-inflammatory ingredient.
"Despite our cautious approach to valuation over the last two years, we continue to see a lot of opportunity to build and, in due course, extract value from each one of our Partner Companies, in addition to the IP licensing programme being pursued directly by DataTern," the company said in a statement.
Shares in Amphion are untraded Friday; it last closed at 2.30 pence per share.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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