24th Apr 2018 08:58
LONDON (Alliance News) - FTSE 250-listed Woodford Patient Capital Trust's net asset value for 2017 dropped as one of its portfolio companies Prothena Corp, reported a failed trial of one of its treatment compounds.
The trust invests in predominantly UK companies, both quoted and unquoted, with the aim of delivering a return of over 10% per year over the longer term.
Woodford reported a net asset value as at December 31 at 91.33 pence per share, down from 93.24p on the same date the year before. The share price at the end of 2017 was 84.45 pence, reflecting a discount to net asset value of 7.5%, widened from 2.4%.
Shares in Woodford Patient Capital Trust were quoted flat at 75.70 pence on Tuesday.
The main detractor to Woodford's performance was the news from Irish biotechnology company Prothena - which makes up 7.8% of the trust's gross portfolio assets - that its trial for NEOD001 in the rare disease amyloidosis was unsuccessful. The company's shares on NASDAQ in New York are down 78% over the past year.
Despite this, there was progress seen within Woodford's portfolio, with Oxford Nanopore, Atom Bank and Benevolent AI completing their fundraising rounds, Proton Partners treating its first patient with proton beam therapy, and Autolus planning to list on NASDAQ during 2018.
"The board, many of whom have in-depth experience of the early-stage asset class, is well aware that young companies do not develop in a linear fashion. This is the case with Prothena, which announced in April that its trial for NEOD001 in AL amyloidosis has been unsuccessful, said Chairman Susan Searle.
"It is clearly disappointing that this particular milestone has not been met. However, this is not the only product in its pipeline and we will be discussing with the portfolio manager how Prothena and its management team will be executing its strategy going forward," Searle added.
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