LONDON (Alliance News) - Port Erin Biopharma Investments Ltd Monday said it swung to a pretax loss in the first half of its financial year after it had booked significant gains a year earlier, but said its three core investments continue to show " substantial growth potential for the remainder of 2015 and beyond".
The investing firm's core investments are in Magna Biopharma Income Fund, Plethora Solutions Holdings PLC and Summit Corp PLC.
For the half year to end-December, Port Erin posted a pretax loss of GBP143,388, compared with a pretax profit of GBP1.8 million a year earlier when it had booked significant unrealised gains against its investments in Summit and Plethora. Its investment revenue also fell to GBP83,835, from GBP2.3 million a year earlier.
Its invested assets at fair value at the end of 2014 were GBP2.5 million, compared with GBP4.8 million at the end of June.
In January the company undertook a tender offer to allow shareholders to sell part of their holding back to the company at an implicit value, rather than the "historically discounted market price". This was planned as part of a strategic review to eliminate the discount to net asset value implicit in its share price.
"Whilst the results for the present period have reported losses, positive steps have been taken in addressing the significant discount to net asset value implicit in the company's share price mentioned above which we firmly believe will enhance shareholder value in the future," the company said in a statement.
Additionally, Port Erin said it was considering a number of investment options which "show considerable promise", it said.
Shares in Port Erin are trading down 4.5% at 10.50 pence Monday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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