7 Jun 2010 13:01
Preliminary Announcement for
Oxford Technology Venture Capital Trust plc for the year ended
28 February 2010
Chairman's Statement
Investment Portfolio
As usual, the news is mixed with some companies doing reasonably well but with others having problems of one sort or another. On 1 March 2010, so just too late to be included in the accounts, OT1 received £834,000 for the sale of the shareholding in Membrane Extraction Technology (MET). OT1 was the first external investor in this company, a spin out from Imperial College, and invested £160,000 in December 1998. In February 2007, OT1 invested a further £50,000, along with £75,000 each from OT2 and OT3.
MET was founded by Andrew Livingston, a professor of chemical engineering, and the company sought to develop methods for using special-purpose membranes to improve the separation process, for example to extract the desired compound from a mix of reaction products. The membranes made by others proved unsatisfactory in some circumstances, and in 2006, MET began designing and manufacturing its own membranes. These are now being used, so far at lab or pilot production scale, by many pharmaceutical companies. On 1 March the whole company was purchased by a German chemical company Evonik, which also has an interest in special purpose membranes, and which also manufactures some of the polymers which are the raw material for certain membranes. Evonik's larger scale membrane production plant is currently being installed at MET's factory.
Following the sale of MET, as announced today, the Board resolved to pay a dividend of 10p to shareholders of record on 18 June 2010. The dividend will be paid on or around 16 July 2010.
OT1 owns a significant shareholding, currently 33%, in Select Technology Ltd. Since 2005, Select has been working very closely with Ricoh, the world's leading manufacturer of MFDs (Multi-Function Devices, formerly known as photocopiers, but which now do many other things as well, such as scanning, emailing, faxing and printing.) Ricoh sells over 1m MFDs per year. Increasingly, as with computers 30 years ago, what persuades a customer to buy one model rather than another is not the hardware, but the software which runs on the hardware, such as software to allocate the costs of using the MFDs on a global network to the appropriate departments. Ricoh are not themselves experts in this software. Select has developed software modules, now known as the m3i platform which can be embedded with Ricoh's operating system, and which transmits data about the state of affairs within the MFD to external software and which enables external software to control the MFD. So m3i acts as a bridge between Ricoh MFDs and external software.
M3i enables a multitude of applications. For example, the Access Module enables a visually impaired user to operate the MFD from their own PDA or laptop using a screen with large writing tailored to their own particular needs. Ricoh gave Access Module its "Innovative product of the year" award in September 2007. But the delays have been agonising and it was not until January 2010 that Ricoh finally launched the Access module in the US. Since then there have been three sample sales to US Government Departments and the Access Module is now likely to be included in future tenders to US Government departments. It enables Ricoh to comply with disability legislation.
Other modules of the m3i platform were launched in April and it will not be until late summer that the full suite is live globally. Select receives £80 - £350 for each sale, depending on how many modules of the m3i platform are used, and a sale is made by a dealer simply downloading a licence key from the Ricoh intranet website. So future success will depend on what percentage of future Ricoh MFDs use modules from the m3i platform. There are some encouraging signs, but the next year will be critical.
In late March, also since the date of these accounts, Scancell closed a £2.5m funding round, in which OT1 invested £75,000. Following the round, OT1 holds 5.2% of the equity. The investment included a number of new investors as well as existing shareholders of the company, and will enable Scancell to complete Phase 1/2a clinical trials of its first product, a DNA cancer vaccine against melanoma.
While other companies in the portfolio continue to trade, the best prospects of a good return for shareholders reside in Select and Scancell.
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"). 130,580 Shares were allotted at 41 pence on 1 April 2010. An aggregate of 14,097 of these Shares were allotted to Directors. A further 10,000 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 investee companies in their additional fundraising rounds.
Results for the year
Interest on bank deposits and investee loans produced gross income of £5,000 (2009: £23,000) in the year. The profit for the year was £280,000 (2009: loss of £214,000) and earnings per share for the year showed a gain of 5.3p (2009: (4.2p)).
AGM
Shareholders should note that the AGM for Oxford Technology 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) on disposal of investments held at fair value | (14) | - |
| Unrealised (loss)/gain on fair value of investments | 349 | (167) |
| Other income | 5 | 23 |
| Investment management fees | (28) | (29) |
| Other expenses | (32) | (41) |
|
| ________ | _______ |
|
|
|
|
| (Loss)/profit on ordinary activities before tax | 280 | (214) |
| Taxation on profit/(loss) on ordinary activities | - | - |
|
| ====== | ====== |
| (Loss)/profit on ordinary activities after tax | 280 | (214) |
|
| ====== | ====== |
|
|
|
|
| Earnings per share (basic and diluted) | 5.3p | (4.2)p |
|
|
|
|
|
| ====== | ====== |
|
|
|
|
Historic cost profits and losses note
|
| Year ended 28/02/10 | Year ended 28/02/09 |
|
| £000 | £000 |
| (Loss)/profit for the year: | 280 | (214) |
| Unrealised loss/(gain) on fair value of investments | (349) | 167 |
| Realisation of prior year's net loss | 14 | - |
| Historical cost loss before tax | (55) | (47) |
| Historical cost loss after tax | (55) | (47)
|
Balance sheet at 28 February 2010
|
| 28 February 2010 Audited | 28 February 2009 Audited | ||
|
| £000 | £000 | £000 | £000 |
| Fixed assets |
|
|
|
|
| Investments at fair value |
| 2,051 |
| 1,658 |
| Current assets |
|
|
|
|
| Debtors & prepayments | 3 |
| 1 |
|
| Cash at bank | 122 |
| 150 |
|
|
| _____ |
| _____ |
|
|
| 125 |
| 151 |
|
| Creditors: amounts falling due within one year | (7) |
| (7) |
|
|
| _____ |
| _____ |
|
| Net current assets |
| 118 |
| 144 |
|
|
| _____ |
| _____ |
| Net assets |
| 2,169 |
| 1,802 |
|
|
| ===== |
| ===== |
| Capital and reserves |
|
|
|
|
| Called up share capital |
| 529 |
| 506 |
| Share premium |
| 135 |
| 71 |
| Profit and loss account |
| 1,149 |
| 1,377 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Revaluation reserve |
| 356 |
| (152) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Shareholders' funds |
| 2,169 |
| 1,802 |
|
|
| ===== |
| ===== |
| Net asset value per share |
| 41p |
| 36p |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ===== |
| ===== |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cash flow statement for the year ended 28 February 2010
|
| 2010 Audited | 2009 Audited |
|
| £000 | £000 |
| Net cash (outflow) from operating activities | (57) | (43) |
| Capital expenditure and financial investment |
|
|
| Purchase of investments | (58) | (173) |
| Disposal of investments | - | - |
|
| ______ | ______ |
| Net cash (outflow) from capital expenditure and financial investment | (58) | (173) |
| Net cash outflow before financing | (115) | (216) |
| Financing |
|
|
| Issue of Shares | 92 | 97 |
| Expenses paid in connection with share issue | (5) | (5) |
|
|
|
|
| Net cash inflow from financing | 87 | 92 |
| Dividends paid | - | (252) |
|
| ______ | ______ |
| (Decrease) in cash | (28) | (376) |
|
| ====== | ====== |
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.