LONDON (Alliance News) - Early-stage investor Mercia Technologies PLC on Wednesday said it made a loss in the year to the end of March as it ramped up its operations and invested in new businesses.
Mercia said it swung to a pretax loss of GBP1.7 million in the year to the end of March. The comparative figures provided by the company related to the period between Mercia's admission to London's AIM market in December 2014 to the end of March 2015. In that period, it made a GBP2.0 million profit, buoyed by fair value gains on its investment portfolio.
The loss for the 2015 financial year was driven by costs related to the headcount increase at the company as it scaled up its operations.
Mercia said it made revenue of GBP1.8 million in the 2016 financial year and said the value of its direct investment portfolio grew to GBP38.1 million from GBP24.6 million. Net fair value gains on the portfolio only amounted to GBP900,000 in the year, however, compared to GBP3.9 million in the prior three-and-a-half-month period.
Over the course of the financial year, Mercia invested GBP12.6 million in 16 companies, including Impression Technologies, Edge Case Games, Intelligent Positioning and Oxford Genetics.
"Mercia Technologies has made significant progress in the year under review. Our existing portfolio of direct investments is well balanced, having completed a number of both new and follow-on direct investments. Furthermore, we have put in place the foundations to accelerate our growth in the months and years ahead," said Mercia Chief Executive Mark Payton.
Mercia shares were untraded on Thursday, having last traded at 41.90 pence.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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Mercia Asset (MERC)