8th May 2007 14:40
Oxford Technology 4 VCT PLC08 May 2007 Preliminary Announcement for Oxford Technology 4 Venture Capital Trust plc for the year ended 28 February 2007 Chairman's Statement Investment Portfolio The Board of Oxford Technology 4 VCT is pleased with the development of theportfolio as a whole.The nature of investing in a portfolio of early stage andstart-up technology companies is that some failures are to be expected, thatfailures will come before successes, and that the overall returns will come froma few 'stars'. Net Assets per share in such a portfolio may therefore beexpected to follow a J curve, with some early failures resulting in a fall innet asset values followed by a rise in later years as returns from the starsmaterialise. Many companies in the portfolio are making good progress and continue to havethe potential to be stars, but other companies have failed to achieve theirbusiness plans and OT4 has declined to invest further with the result that therehave been several failures. Ingenious has failed to complete its software tothe point at which it could achieve its first sale, and the investment has beenwritten down to nothing. Cutting the Wires experienced problems when itsinitial customer, a multinational which had paid it more than £300,000 todevelop a product for them cancelled the contract since it was itself in troubleand announced 10,000 redundancies. This would have been the first user for theCTW product, and was a major setback. Kinomi failed to achieve traction for itsintelligent email archiving system in which emails are archived by the content.It transpires that people like the idea of being able to find other people'semails but are not so keen on other people finding theirs. Several timescompanies, including some very large companies paid for trials. The trials wentwell technically but no order followed. Kinomi has now changed strategy and hasraised additional capital but at a lower share price. Wright Fenn failed to make progress and was put into administration and theinvestment written off. Water Innovate failed to achieve anything like thelevel of sales expected. It has therefore been scaled back to a skeleton staff,to look after the current customers and level of sales. The value of theinvestment has been severely reduced. The overall result of is a fall in net assets per share from 95p on 28 February2006 to 91p per share on 28 February 2007. Glide Pharma is continuing to make excellent progress and has reached 'heads ofagreement' with a pharma company for an option on the exclusive use of the GlideTechnology for its particular drug.Imagineer is spinning out a separate companyAdbroker, which will use Imagineer's technology to place product ads in digitalfilm. Increasingly people expect free film over the internet, and as Google hasdemonstrated, large sums can be generated by customers placing paid-for ads inotherwise free content. Imagineer's technology enables this to be done easilyin film, not merely in still images. Impact Applications is expanding rapidly,as is Inspiration Matters. A US company has expressed interest in purchasingthis company. Insense has received regulatory approval to use the first of its range of activewound-healing dressings in hospitals to generate cases, and hopes to receiveapproval for general sale at any moment. Naked Objects has won a contract, inpartnership with IBM, for a case management system for the Department of Justicein Ireland. Oxis Energy is continuing to make good technical progress with itsLithium Sulphide rechargeable battery. Plasma Antennas has achieved an important technical milestone, demonstratinggain in a signal reflected from plasma generated within its antenna for thefirst time, and after many years of effort. It has also designed asemi-steerable non-plasma antenna, and has significant customer interest inthis. Other companies are also making reasonable or good progress. Results for the year Interest on bank deposits and investee loans together with dividend incomeproduced gross revenue of £192,000 (2006: £194,000) in the year. Net revenue after taxation and management expenses was a loss of £176,000 (2006:loss of £3,000) and revenue return for the year was a loss of 1.81p (2006: lossof 0.04p) per share. Capital return was a loss of 3.09p per share (2006: loss of 1.27p). AGM Shareholders should note that the AGM for Oxford Technology 4 VCT will be heldon Monday 25th June 2007, at the Magdalen Centre, Oxford Science Park, startingat 12.00 noon and will include presentations by some of the companies in whichthe Oxford Technology VCTs have invested. A formal Notice of AGM has beenincluded at the back of these Accounts together with a Form of Proxy for thosenot attending. John JacksonChairman4 May 2007 Statement of Total Return (incorporating the revenue account)* for the period ended 28 February 2007 Revenue Capital 2007 Total Revenue Capital 2006 Total £000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000Losses on investments - (301) (301) - (85) (85)Income 192 - 192 194 - 194 Investment advisory fee (231) - (231) (135) - (135)Other expenses (137) - (137) (62) - (62) _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____Net loss on ordinary activities (176) (301) (477) (3) (85) (88)before taxationTax on net return/(loss) on - - - - - -ordinary activitiesLoss attributable to equity (176) (301) (477) (3) (85) (88)shareholders and transfers fromreserves _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ ______Loss per ordinary share (1.81)p (3.09)p (4.90)p (0.04)p (1.27)p (1.31)p * The revenue column of this statement is the profit and loss account of the company. All revenue and capital items in the above statement derive from continuingoperations. There were no recognised gains or losses for the period other thanthose shown above. Balance sheet at 28 February 2007 28 February 2007 Audited 28 February 2006 Audited £000 £000 £000 £000Fixed assetsInvestments at fair value 5,552 3,549Current assetsDebtors & prepayments 25 132Cash at bank 3,793 3,011 _____ _____ 3,818 3,143 Creditors: amounts falling due (5) (5)within one year _____ _____Net current assets 3,813 3,138 _____ _____Net assets 9,365 6,687 ===== =====Capital and reservesCalled up share capital 1,034 713Share premium account 9,061 6,227 Capital reserve - realised - -Capital reserve - unrealised (386) (85) Revenue reserve (344) (168) Shareholders' funds 9,365 6,687 ===== =====Net asset value per share 90.6p 93.8p ===== ===== Cash flow statement for the year ended 28 February 2007 2007 2006 Audited Audited £000 £000Net cash outflow from operating (69) (80)activitiesCapital expenditure and financialinvestment Purchase of investments (2,303) (3,161) ______ ______Net cash outflow from capital (2,303) (3,161)expenditure and financialinvestmentNet cash outflow before financing (2,372) (3,241) FinancingIssue of shares 3,196 3,892Expenses paid in connection with share (42) -issue Net cash inflow from financing 3,154 3,892 ______ ______Increase in cash 782 651 ====== ====== Notes: 1. Basis of preparation The preliminary announcement has been prepared in accordance with applicable accounting standards and with the Statement of Recommended Practice 'Financial statements of investment trust companies' issued in December 2005. The principal accounting policies are set out in the company's financial statements for the year ended 28 February 2007. 2. Return per Ordinary Share The calculation of revenue return per share is based on the loss of £176,000 (2006: loss of £3,000) for the financial period divided by the weighted average number of ordinary shares of 9,755,566 (2006: 6,712,203) in issue during the period. The calculation of capital return per share is based on the net capital loss for the financial period of £301,000 (2006: £85,000) divided by the weighted average number of ordinary shares of 9,755,566 (2006: 6,712,203) in issue during the period. 3. General The financial information set out in this preliminary announcement does not constitute statutory accounts as defined in section 240 of the Companies Act 1985. The balance sheet at 28 February 2007 and the statement of total return (incorporating the revenue account), cash flow statement and associated notes for the year then ended have been extracted from the company's 2007 statutory financial statements on which the auditors' opinion is unqualified and does not include any statement under section 237 of the Companies Act 1985. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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