Imperial Innovations (IVO) looks like a very different investment company to the one that reported a year ago. That's mainly due to the IPO of biotech group Circassia (CIR) in March, which Imperial's chief executive, Russ Cummings, co-founded and is the group's largest investment. Circassia raised £200m on flotation, making it the biggest biotech fundraising in the UK to date. As of 31 July, Imperial has a 14 per cent stake in the allergy specialist, which helps to explain record pre-tax profits for the year. More importantly, the value of the group's portfolio increased 38 per cent last year to £252m.
Imperial realised value through a further three IPOs last year. First IXICO (IXI) floated on Aim in October 2013, followed by Oxford Immunotec on Nasdaq in November (US:OXFD), and finally Abzena (ABZA) on London's junior market in July. In June, Imperial also transformed its balance sheet by raising £150m in a share placing to fund future investments. Mr Cummings said he felt "the company was coming of age".
Analysts at Cenkos Securities expect pre-tax profits of £7.6m for the current financial year, giving EPS of 7.4p, down from £27.4m and 26.7p last year.
| IMPERIAL INNOVATIONS (IVO) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 470p | MARKET VALUE: | £645m | |
| TOUCH: | 460-469p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 490p | LOW: 350p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | NIL | PE RATIO: | 18 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 295p | NET CASH: | £92m | |
| Year to 31 July | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 4.3 | 5.5 | 9.4 | nil |
| 2011 | 4.5 | 0.6 | 0.9 | nil |
| 2012 | 4.3 | 5.1 | 8.1 | nil |
| 2013 | 3.3 | 3.8 | 4.6 | nil |
| 2014 | 3.6 | 27.4 | 26.8 | nil |
| % change | +9 | +621 | +483 | - |
Ex-div: na Payment: na | ||||
