11th Jun 2020 09:26
(Alliance News) - Syncona Ltd on Thursday reported a drop in net assets over financial 2020, blaming the performance of investee Autolus, but believes it is well situated going forward.
At March 31, the life sciences investor's NAV per share stood at 185.6 pence, down 14% from 216.8p at the same point a year before.
Net assets ended the period at GBP1.25 billionn compared to GBP1.46 billion a year before, a 14% drop.
The investment firm said it has no intention of declaring a dividend for financial 2020. In November, Syncona said "it is no longer appropriate" for it to pay a dividend, without elaborating.
The NAV total return for financial 2020 was negative 13.3%.
"This was driven predominantly by a decline in Autolus' share price which outweighed the write-up of Achilles and the uplift to the value of Blue Earth on sale. We believe Autolus remains well positioned to deliver for patients and continues to have good longer-term potential," Syncona said.
London-based Autolus Therapeutics PLC develops T cell therapies for cancer patients.
Syncona's life science portfolio stood at GBP479.5 million at March 31, down 25% over the period.
Chief Executive Martin Murphy said: "2020 was a year of good strategic progress for Syncona. We expanded the expertise in our team and added a new company to our portfolio, whilst the sales of Blue Earth and Nightstar, two companies we founded, delivered very attractive cash returns. The proceeds from these sales significantly strengthened our capital pool enabling us to make long-term funding commitments, deploying GBP206.4 million into our portfolio as our next generation of companies' scale."
He continued: "Our portfolio made good progress over the year including the generation of positive clinical data. The decline in Autolus' share price has clearly impacted our financial performance in the year and whilst this is disappointing, Autolus has advanced its AUTO1 programme to a pivotal study and post period end released good data from its AUTO3 DLBCL programme. We believe Autolus has the potential to deliver next generation CAR-T therapies to patients over the long-term."
Looking ahead, Murphy said the need for medicines "remains undiminished".
"Our strong capital pool and the deep expertise within the team means we are well positioned to support our companies in navigating continued disruption and ensure they able to progress their business plans. Whilst life science product development is never without risk, we believe our nine companies are strongly positioned to deliver value over the long-term," he added.
Shares in Syncona were down 1.5% in London on Thursday morning at 219.77 pence each.
By Paul McGowan; [email protected]
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