31st Mar 2015 12:54
LONDON (Alliance News) - Frontier IP Group PLC Tuesday said it is optimistic about the opportunities it has to grow its portfolio of companies formed to commercialise university research, as the intellectual property investor swung to a first-half pretax loss due to lower revenue and higher administrative expenses.
Frontier IP said it made a GBP242,000 pretax loss in the six months ended December 31, 2014, compared with a GBP3,000 pretax profit in the corresponding period the prior year. Revenue fell to GBP244,000 from GBP345,000 due to a lower contribution from the services it provides and a drop in unrealised profit on the revaluation of investments to GBP160,000 from GBP243,000. Administrative expenses increased to GBP487,000 from GBP316,000.
The fair value of its portfolio increased to GBP1.6 million at the end of 2014, compared with GBP1.3 million at the end of June that year.
Chairman Andrew Richmond said the company progressed in line with its strategy in the first half of the financial year, pursuing growth for its portfolio. The chairman also noted a number of developments, including Cambridge Simulation Solutions Ltd, its first spin-out company from the University of Cambridge, and a fundraising for Nandi Proteins.
Richmond also said that progress has continued into the second half of the year, with the addition of Cambridge Sensor Technologies Ltd to the portfolio and a fundraising for existing portfolio company Alusid Ltd.
"Frontier IP has made encouraging progress over the first half and the continuing growth of our portfolio is especially pleasing. We remain very positive about the growth opportunities available to us and look forward to reporting on further portfolio progress over the second half of the financial year," Richmond said in a statement.
Frontier IP shares were untraded on Tuesday. The stock closed at 23.75 pence on Monday.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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