LONDON (Alliance News) - SPARK Ventures PLC Thursday said it is changing its name to Gresham House Strategic PLC following its pursuance of a new strategic public equity investment strategy in partnership with Gresham House PLC.
SPARK previously invested in start-up and early-stage internet and technology ventures, while Gresham House is a specialist asset management group.
In July, the two companies agreed to partner up to pursue a strategic public equity investment strategy which would target "superior long-term investment returns through applying private equity techniques to investing in public markets".
The appointment of Gresham House as SPARK's investment adviser resulted in the termination of SPARK's contract with its previous manager Spark Venture Management Holdings Ltd.
Gresham House will focus on inefficient areas of the market, taking influential block stakes in smaller companies and then constructively engaging with those companies to identify "value creation catalysts". It will also make a "significant investment" in Spark to "support the new investment mandate", SPARK said in July.
"After the successful realisation of the majority of the old Spark Ventures portfolio, we have evolved our investment strategy to that of investing in smaller, largely publicly quoted companies, applying private equity style techniques and due diligence alongside a value investment philosophy to a focused portfolio. Our new managers at Gresham House have a great track record in this arena and recognising this evolution we have renamed ourselves Gresham House Strategic," Chairman David Potter said in a statement on Thursday.
SPARK shares were untraded Thursday morning, last quoted at 770.00 pence, whilst Gresham House shares were also untraded, last quoted at 324.35p.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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