12th Mar 2019 09:06
LONDON (Alliance News) - Life sciences investor Syncona Ltd on Tuesday said it will significantly reduce its fund investments over the next three to six months as it works to simplify the management of its capital pool.
Syncona will couple its reduced fund investment with an increase in its weighting to cash, cash equivalents, and fixed income products that have higher liquidity as well as lower volatility.
Matin Murphy, chief executive of Syncona Investment Management Ltd said: "This is a natural next step for the management of our capital pool. Our life science portfolio has generated significant value to date, with the offer for Nightstar demonstrating our ability to deliver strong returns."
Nightstar Therapeutics PLC is a gene therapy firm and an investee company of Syncona. Nightstar has agreed to be acquired by neuroscience healthcare firm Biogen Inc for USD877 million. As owner of a 38% stake in Nightstar, Syncona stands to receive GBP254.6 million from the acquisition.
"Successful life science companies scale rapidly, and our existing portfolio is now at the stage where our strategic capital pool ideally positions Syncona to capitalise on the commercial opportunities ahead of us," said Murphy.
Shares in Syncona were down 1.7% at 257.96 pence on Tuesday morning.
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