4th Jun 2019 11:59
LONDON (Alliance News) - Draper Esprit PLC said Tuesday its net asset value per share increased sharply in its most recent financial year with significant gains on fair value, particularly from its Graphcore investment.
Shares in Draper Esprit were down 3.7% at 469.00 pence in late morning trade in London.
As at March 31, the end of the venture capital firm's financial year, NAV per share stood at 524.0 pence, a 26% rise from 416.0p a year before.
Draper Esprit first backed semiconductor company Graphcore in 2016 and has so far invested GBP13.7 million, including GBP9 million in December 2018. The increase in fair value on Draper Esprit's Graphcore investment was GBP45.7 million, which took the fair value of the investment to GBP78.6 million from GBP23.4 million.
An increase in the fair value of Graphcore, as well as a number of other positive fair value increases, meant that Draper Esprit's financial assets held at fair value through profit or loss stood at GBP562.1 million on March 31, more than twice the GBP231.9 million figure the year before.
This increase in financial assets at fair value was the strongest factor in the rise of Draper Esprit's total non-current assets to GBP572.7 million from GBP242.6 million and in the rise of its net assets to GBP618.6 million from GBP300.5 million.
Following the end of its recent financial year, Draper Esprit realised GBP15.3 million from the partial sale of its stake in Transferwise and entered a GBP50.0 million credit agreement to give additional flexibility to its funding.
"The twelve months ended 31 March 2019 were a transformational period for the business which saw us undertake two successful fundraisings for the PLC, invest GBP226.4 million in high growth tech firms across Europe, strengthen our dealflow across Europe with our strategic partnership with Earlybird, realise significant cash from exits and, once again, exceed our core strategic aim of delivering a portfolio return of 20% per annum with an annual return of 58% on opening portfolio value," said Draper Esprit Chief Executive Simon Cook.
"We have started the new financial year well and, while we are maintaining our customary discipline with regards to new investments, we continue to see exciting opportunities to work with attractive businesses, providing early and growth-stage technology companies with the capital, international networks, and hands-on support they need in order to achieve their global growth ambitions," Cook added.
The company also announced Chief Financial Officer Ben Wilkinson will be joining its board. Wilkinson joined the company as CFO in 2016 but hadn't been a board member. He previously was CFO of President Energy PLC for five years.
Related Shares:
Molten Ventures