29th Aug 2018 16:30
LONDON (Alliance News) - Kings Arms Yard VCT PLC on Wednesday reported an increase in its net asset value in the first half of the year, due in particular to an uplift on its Grapeshot Ltd disposal.
As at June 30, the venture capital trust's net asset value stood at 22.74 pence, up 4.3% from 21.81 pence last year. The reason given for this was the sale of Grapeshot for USD4.3 million to Oracle Corp, as well as an improvement to the value of its Quantexa investment.
"The net effect of the board's regular portfolio revaluation has been an overall gain on investments of GBP5.8 million. The key movements in the period include: a further GBP2.3 million uplift following the disposal of Grapeshot to Oracle; a GBP1.4 million uplift in the valuation of Quantexa following a third party led funding round," said Kings Arms Chairman Robin Field.
Kings Arms's pretax profit for the six months to June 30 was GBP5.3, more than twice its GBP2.6 million profit the year before.
The company has declared a second 0.60 pence per share dividend for the current financial year, which will be paid October 5. This is a 20% increase from the 0.50p per share dividend paid in the prior year. The trust's dividend target per share is 1.20p.
"Your board remains cautious on the economic outlook but positive on the long term prospects of the portfolio. Our investments are well diversified in more than 50 companies in a wide variety of sectors and stages of maturity. The board believes the portfolio offers significant long-term growth potential which will be determined primarily by the success of the underlying businesses rather than the macroeconomic environment," said Field.
Shares in Kings Arms Yard were down 5.0% at 19.00p on Wednesday.
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