(Alliance News) - Syncona Ltd on Thursday said it will not be paying a dividend for the first half of its current financial year as the performance of its portfolio companies deteriorated.
In addition, the healthcare company said it has invested GBP29.5 million in a new portfolio company, Azeria Therapeutics, as part of series B financing. Syncona will now have a 61% stake.
Azeria was founded in 2017 by Sixth Element Capital, with the aim of building a pioneer factor oncology company, developing treatments for hormone resistant breast cancer patients.
Azeria received initial investment of GBP5.5 million in series A financing from the CRT Pioneer Fund, which focuses on early stage investments in oncology programmes, Syncona said.
Turning to earnings, Syncona reported net asset value per share on September 30 of 198.87 pence a share, down from 208.13p a year prior and 216.8p as at March 31.
Syncona explained that its NAV performance was hurt by the 61% fall in the share price of Autolus Therapeutics Ltd, which outweighed the GBP92.7 million gain on the sale of Blue Earth Diagnostics Ltd and uplift in the value of Achilles Therapeutics Ltd.
"We have made good progress across the portfolio and demonstrated a strong track record of success in the first half of 2019.," said Chief Executive Martin Murphy.
Syncona paid a 2.3p per share dividend for the year to the end of March, but said "it is no longer appropriate" for it to pay a dividend, without elaborating.
Looking ahead, Murphy added: "We continue to see a strong pipeline of opportunities across a broad range of therapeutic areas to found new companies and take products to market, as we seek to build a sustainable, diversified portfolio of 15-20 companies in innovative areas of healthcare."
Syncona shares were trading 1.6% lower in London on Thursday morning at 220.87 pence each.
By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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Syncona (SYNC)