B Share Portfolio Update
Seneca Growth Capital VCT Plc (the "Company")
21 December 2022
B Share Pool Investment Activity since 30 June 2022
Since the June 2022 interim results, the Company has completed seven additional investments, including one follow-on investment into Arecor Therapeutics Plc, three private company investments and three new AIM quoted investments, maintaining our goal of achieving a relatively even split between unquoted and quoted investments across a diverse spread of sectors. The investments made since 30 June 2022 are as follows:
- Arecor Therapeutics Plc (“Arecor”) - £0.2m follow-on investment made in August 2022 following our initial £0.4m investment at IPO. Arecor is developing a portfolio of proprietary products in diabetes and other indications with its innovative proprietary formulation technology platform, Arestat™, and working with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to deliver enhanced reformulations of their therapies.
- Alderley Lighthouse Labs Ltd (“ALL”) - £0.5m invested in October 2022. ALL is a full service diagnostic facility in Alderley Park, with an initial focus on blood science and molecular diagnostics with capabilities to expand into histology and oncology.
- Oxford BioDynamics Plc (“OBD”) - £0.7m invested in October 2022. OBD is a global biotechnology company, advancing personalized healthcare by developing and commercializing precision medicine tests for life-changing diseases.
- Bidstack Group Plc (“Bidstack”) - £1.1m invested in October 2022. Bidstack is an advertising technology company which provides dynamic, targeted and automated native in-game advertising for the global video games industry across multiple platforms.
- Northcoders Group plc (“Northcoders”) - £0.3m invested in November 2022. Northcoders is a market leading provider of coding and software development training for businesses and individuals.
- Geomiq Limited (“Geomiq”) - £0.3m invested in December 2022. Geomiq is a supply chain platform solution that allows engineers and procurement teams to shorten product development cycles and get products to market faster by leveraging technology and a machine-learning-powered matching system to connect buyers and sellers of custom manufactured parts.
- Convenient Collect Limited (“HubBox”) - £0.7m invested in December 2022. HubBox provides software for retailers to easily offer local pickup options at checkout for customers who want alternatives to home delivery. This software facilitates the offer of integrated flexible delivery options, including consolidation of multiple deliveries into single location/pick up points, helping to solve the ‘last mile problem’ for delivery providers, retailers and customers.
The B share pool remains well placed to make new investments and support existing B share portfolio companies with c.£5m in cash following the investment in HubBox and with a continuing fundraise under the current Offer.
B Share Pool Exits Update
The Company continues to harvest profits where possible for investors, and has made three full and partial exits to date in 2022, taking the total number of full and partial exits since 2019 to eight. The total weighted average return for exits achieved to date is 1.8x return. However, neither the exits achieved nor the valuations of the B share portfolio since 30 September 2022, the date of the last published unaudited Net Asset Value (“NAV”) per B share, have had a material impact on the NAV.
B Share Pool Dividends Update
The Company also continues to maintain its 3 pence per annum B share dividend, with its second interim dividend of 1.5 pence per B share for the year to 31 December 2022, which was paid on 16 December 2022. The Company has now paid a total of 12 pence per B share since the launch of the B share class in 2018.
The Company looks forward to providing a further update in Q1 2023.
This announcement contains inside information as stipulated under the UK version of the Market Abuse Regulation No 596/2014 which is part of English Law by virtue of the European (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended. Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this information is now considered to be in the public domain.
For further information, please contact:
John Hustler, Seneca Growth Capital VCT Plc at john.hustler@btconnect.com
Richard Manley, Seneca Growth Capital VCT Plc at Richard.Manley@senecapartners.co.uk
