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(Alliance News) - Syncona Ltd on Thursday said net asset value increased in the first half of its financial year thanks to a strong return from its life science portfolio, and it announced the founding of a new company with a GBP45 million financing commitment.
Syncona is a healthcare company that focuses on founding, building, and funding a portfolio of life science businesses. Its NAV per share at at September 30, the end of its first half, was 203.4 pence, up from 185.6p on March 31.
"Performance has been driven by the 24.8% return from our life science portfolio companies, which have continued to make significant clinical, operational and financial progress, despite the unprecedented backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic," said Chief Executive Martin Murphy.
Syncona did not declare or pay a dividend, having paid out GBP15.2 million a year before. It said its directors believe it is no longer appropriate for the company to pay a dividend, with further explanation Thursday.
Murphy commented: "Syncona has delivered a robust performance, underpinned by a strong balance sheet and disciplined capital allocation. We have recently founded and invested in two exciting new companies with ambitions to deliver transformational treatments to patients. We also made an investment in an exceptional emerging cell therapy company and continued to invest and support our portfolio companies as they achieved key clinical and financial milestones, despite the unprecedented backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Driven by our purpose to invest to extend and enhance human life, we remain focused on the long-term as we seek to build a dynamic portfolio of 15-20 companies in innovative areas of healthcare."
Additionally, Syncona said it is founding a new company, Purespring Therapeutics, with a GBP45.0 million series A financing. The GBP45.0 million commitment will fund Purespring's build-out and allow it to progress to clinical stage.
Syncona's holding value after the investment of the first tranche of the series A commitment is GBP3.9 million. Once all current commitments are invested it will have an 84% stake in Purespring.
Purespring is among the first AAV gene therapy companies focused on the kidney and it "will seek to advance gene therapies for the treatment of chronic renal diseases that are currently poorly addressed with existing treatments".
Purespring will establish FunSel, an in-vivo function screening platform "to initially screen for protective factors that could have applications across several kidney diseases."
Shares in Syncona were down 0.2% at 266.50p in London on Thursday morning.
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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