7 Jun 2010 15:54
Preliminary Announcement for
Oxford Technology 4 Venture Capital Trust plc for the year ended
28 February 2010
Chairman's Statement
Investment Portfolio
The Company has a portfolio of 26 investee companies, some of which have experienced problems of various sorts during the last year and some of which have made good progress. Ultimate success, meaning a good financial return to OT4 shareholders, is likely to come from one or two investees which become stars, and which deliver very large returns rather than for all companies doing well.
Shareholders will note that the Net Asset Value of OT4 has dropped 22% in the year, and it should be noted that this is in part due to decisions to write off two investments, one of which was an outright failure, and the other in which the company decided to no longer follow its investment. Much of the remaining fall in NAV is accounted for by two other portfolio companies where, although significant progress is being made, further funds were raised by those companies at deeply discounted valuations. In each of these cases, OT4 followed its investment but nevertheless, the discount is reflected in the total holding. Such is the nature of investing in early stage companies and, overall, the Board is pleased with the portfolio and the prospects for shareholder returns.
Overall, because there are still several investee companies which may yet become stars and in which OT4 still holds a material stake, the Board is pleased with the portfolio and the prospects for shareholder returns. One of the key risks that OT4 must now navigate is ensuring that it has sufficient capital to invest and follow when the stars do begin to make breakthroughs and start to take off. Although unfashionable for a fund manager to say, the upside prospects for OT4 do not seem to rely heavily upon the prospects for the economy as a whole, rather on a set of key specific factors such as whether the technology solves the problem well in the specific application.
OT4 owns 11% of Glide Pharma, which is developing a needle-free injector. In late 2009 and early 2010 Glide sought to raise £2m of additional share capital, and was once again oversubscribed, raising slightly over £2.6m. This puts the company in a stronger financial position.
OT4 owns 20% of Plasma Antennas. This company designs and supplies specialist antennas, which are sold for up to £50,000 each. The company reached an important milestone during the last year when it received its first order for many antennas of the same design for a military application. The expectation is that this will become a long-term supply contract and that other similar contracts will emerge.
OT4 owns 48% of Impact Applications, which has developed a system enabling Councils and Housing Associations to manage the tradesmen who maintain and repair their houses. Southwark Council owns 44,000 council houses and the maintenance of half of these (some 3,000 repairs per week) are now managed by Impact's system. Each tradesman has a PDA which tells him all he needs to know about each job, and he is able to collect signatures on screen and send back photographs of completed jobs as soon as they are done. Paperwork is almost eliminated. The number of outstanding jobs, one measure of efficiency, has fallen from over 4,000 when the system went live in June 2009 to approximately 1,200 by the end of December. Impact now has a proven product and is expected to grow as other councils and Housing Associations adopt its product.
OT4 owns 46% of Pharma Engineering, which makes and sells a patented machine for recovering wasted pharmaceutical tablets and capsules from blister packs. The company made a net profit of £127,625 from revenues of £320,818 during 2009. The company plans to launch a new and complementary product during 2010 and continues to build the pipeline for its existing product.
Other investee companies continue to have great upside potential, but have yet to prove their underlying business assumptions and where OT4 is exposed to the risk of having insufficient capital to weather the possibility of investment rounds at lower prices.
OT4 owns 7.7% of MirriAd, a company enabling broadcasters to embed products and brand identities into videos, films and television programmes post production. The company recently raised £1.8m from its shareholders in a discounted rights issue during a difficult fund raising environment which necessitated a writedown in fair value. Nevertheless the company is making good progress. It is collaborating with one of Europe's largest broadcast companies, and expects to begin generating advertising revenues in the next quarter as its product placements go live.
OT4 owns 15.8% of Meciria, who has developed a drilling tool for oil & gas. The company has carried out a series of drill tests to prove the steering concept. Although the expectation was that the tool would soon be ready for commercial use, progress in proving the concept has been slow and testing has been expensive. As a result, the company has had to raise money at a dramatically reduced price. OT4 did not take up all of its rights to ensure that it retained capital to follow in other portfolio ventures, causing OT4's stake to be diluted as a result and the holding value of Meciria to be reduced. At the time of writing, Meciria has since proved the concept and although it needs to carry out further testing before it can generate revenues, it appears increasingly likely that the company will raise the money it needs and that this continues to be a good potential investment for OT4.
OT4 owns 15.7% of Historic Futures, who have developed a traceability service for retailers and their supply chains to provide information about the provenance of their products. Sales have been slower than planned in 2010 and so the company may need to raise some money during the Summer. OT4 has discounted the value of its holding by 10% to reflect this risk. Against this, interest in their service has never been stronger and the company is discussions with several large retailers to roll the system out for all products and suppliers, an exciting and defining inflection point for the company.
Several other companies in the portfolio are making satisfactory or good progress and despite the decline in fair value, the board remains optimistic about the eventual value that will accrue to shareholders
Investment Policy & Fundraising
The Company has built a balanced portfolio of investments with the following characteristics:
• unlisted, UK based, science, technology and engineering businesses
• investments typically in the range of £100,000 to £500,000
• generally located within approximately 60 miles of Oxford
After the year end, the Company raised equity by the issue and allotment of ordinary shares of 10 pence each ("Shares"). 332,486 Shares were allotted at 80 pence on 1 April 2010. An aggregate of 8,774 of these Shares were allotted to Directors. A further 112,451 Shares were allotted at the same price on 26 April 2010. None of these Shares were allotted to Directors. The issue of these Shares is a post balance sheet event and is not reflected in the Net Asset Value figures. This will enable the Company to offer modest support to its investee companies in their additional fundraising rounds.
Results for the year
Interest on bank deposits and investee loans produced gross income of £37,000 (2009: £91,000) in the year. The loss for the year was £2,213,000 (2009: loss of £861,000) and earnings per share for the year showed a loss of 20.8p (2009: loss of 8.3p).
AGM
Shareholders should note that the AGM for Oxford Technology 4 VCT will be held on Thursday 15th July 2010, at the Magdalen Centre, Oxford Science Park, starting at 12.00 noon and will include presentations by some of the companies in which the Oxford Technology VCTs have invested.
John Jackson
Chairman
7 June 2010
Profit and Loss Account for the year ended 28 February 2010
|
| Year ended 28/02/10 | Year ended 28/02/09 |
|
| £000 | £000 |
| (Loss)/Gain on disposal of investments held at fair value | (271) | 39 |
| Unrealised (loss) on fair value of investments | (1,695) | (726) |
| Other income | 37 | 91 |
| Investment management fees | (226) | (211) |
| Other expenses | (58) | (54) |
|
| ________ | _______ |
|
|
|
|
| (Loss) on ordinary activities before tax | (2,213) | (861) |
| Taxation on profit/(loss) on ordinary activities | - | - |
|
| ====== | ====== |
| (Loss) on ordinary activities after tax | (2,213) | (861) |
|
| ====== | ====== |
|
|
|
|
| Earnings per share (basic and diluted) | (20.8)p | (8.3)p |
|
|
|
|
|
| ====== | ====== |
|
|
|
|
Historic cost profits and losses note
|
| Year ended 28/02/10 | Year ended 28/02/09 |
|
| £000 | £000 |
| (Loss) for the year: | (2,213) | (861) |
| Unrealised loss on fair value of investments | 1,695 | 726 |
| Realisation of prior year's net (gains)/loss | 271 | (39) |
| Historical cost loss before tax | (247) | (174) |
| Historical cost loss after tax | (247) | (174)
|
Balance sheet at 28 February 2010
|
| 28 February 2010 Audited | 28 February 2009 Audited | ||
|
| £000 | £000 | £000 | £000 |
| Fixed assets |
|
|
|
|
| Investments at fair value |
| 8,141 |
| 8,933 |
| Current assets |
|
|
|
|
| Debtors | 76 |
| 377 |
|
| Cash at bank | 274 |
| 975 |
|
|
| _____ |
| _____ |
|
|
| 350 |
| 1,352 |
|
| Creditors: amounts falling due within one year | (119) |
| (10) |
|
|
| _____ |
| _____ |
|
| Net current assets |
| 231 |
| 1,342 |
|
|
| _____ |
| _____ |
| Net assets |
| 8,372 |
| 10,275 |
|
|
| ===== |
| ===== |
| Capital and reserves |
|
|
|
|
| Called up share capital |
| 1,065 |
| 1,034 |
| Share premium account |
| 279 |
| 9,061 |
| Other reserves |
| - |
| - |
| Capital reserve - realised |
| - |
| 357 |
| Capital reserve - unrealised |
| - |
| 491 |
| Profit and loss account |
| 7,767 |
| (668) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Revaluation reserve |
| (739) |
| - |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Shareholders' funds |
| 8,372 |
| 10,275 |
|
|
| ===== |
| ===== |
| Net asset value per share |
| 79p |
| 99p |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ===== |
| ===== |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cash flow statement for the year ended 28 February 2010
|
| 2010 Audited | 2009 Audited |
|
| £000 | £000 |
| Net cash (outflow) from operating activities | (110) | (166) |
| Capital expenditure and financial investment |
|
|
| Purchase of investments | (921) | (1,042) |
| Disposal of investments | 20 | 62 |
|
| ______ | ______ |
| Net cash (outflow) from capital expenditure and |
|
|
| financial investment | (901) | (980)
|
| Net cashflow before financing | (1,011) | (1,146) |
| Financing |
|
|
| Issue of Shares | 329 | - |
| Expenses paid in connection with share issue | (19) | - |
|
|
|
|
| Net cash inflow from financing | 310 | - |
|
|
|
|
|
| ______ | ______ |
| Decrease in cash | (701) | (1,146) |
|
| ====== | ====== |
Notes:
1. Basis of preparation
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, modified to include the revaluation of investments. The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with applicable accounting standards and with the Statement of Recommended Practice 'Financial statements of investment trust companies' issued in 2009.
2. Earnings per Ordinary Share
The calculation of earnings per share for the period is based on the profit attributable to shareholders divided by the weighted average number of shares in issue during the period.
3. Valuation of Investments
Quoted investments are stated at the bid price. Unquoted investments are stated at fair value, where fair value is estimated after following the guidelines laid down by the International Private Equity and Venture Capital Guidelines. The Directors' policy is to initially state investments at cost and then to review the valuation every three months. The Directors' may then apply an appropriate methodology which, as far as possible, draws on external, objective market data such as where fair value is indicated by:
• a material arms length transaction by a third party in the shares of the company, with discounting for more junior asset classes, and reviewed for impairment; or
• a suitable revenue or earnings multiple where the company is well established and generating maintainable profits. The multiple will be based on comparable listed companies but may be discounted to reflect a lack of marketability; or
• the net assets of the business.
Where such objective data is not available the Directors' may choose to maintain the value of the company as previously stated or to discount this where indicated by underperformance against plan.
During the year ended 28 February 2006 the directors revoked the Investment Company status to enable distributions of capital profits to shareholders. Consequently the accounts have been prepared to include a statutory profit and loss account and a note of historical profits and losses in accordance with schedule 4 of the Companies Act 2006 and Financial Reporting Standard 3 (FRS 3).
The directors consider that this basis of valuation of unquoted investments is consistent with the International Private Equity and Venture Capital Guidelines.
4. General
The financial information set out in this preliminary announcement does not constitute statutory accounts as defined in section 434(3) of the Companies Act 2006. The balance sheet at 28 February 2010 and the profit and loss account, cash flow statement and associated notes for the year then ended have been extracted from the company's 2010 statutory financial statements.
Those financial statements have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies, contain an auditors' opinion that is unqualified and do not include any statement under section 498(2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006.