Two of Touchstone Innovations' (IVO) portfolio companies signed major licensing agreements during the six months to the end of January. Cancer immunotherapy specialist PsiOxus Therapeutics signed an exclusive worldwide licence deal with Bristol-Meyers Squibb for the rights to a single pre-clinical cancer treatment. The agreement includes a $50m (£40m) upfront payment, but is worth a potential $886m in development, regulatory and sales-based milestones. Crescendo also signed an agreement worth a potential $790m with Takeda Pharmaceutical. The cancer drug specialist will use its transgenic platform to test cancer treatments against targets selected by Takeda.
The deals helped lift the fair value of the unquoted portfolio by £23.1m. Along with £29m in investments made in the portfolio, it increased in value by 16 per cent to £340m.
Listed investments also enjoyed a better performance during the first half, with a total marked-to-market net fair value gain of £3.4m. This compares with a net fair value loss of £64m in the year to July 2016. Following its cat allergy drug trial disappointment, Circassia (CIR) had some better news post-period end. It announced a $230m partnership with AstraZeneca (AZN) for US commercial rights to two of Astra’s respiratory drugs.
Analysts at JPMorgan expect adjusted pre-tax profits of £12m during the 12 months to the end of July 2017, giving EPS of 7.34p (from losses of £63m and 43.2p in FY2016).
TOUCHSTONE INNOVATIONS (IVO) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 326p | MARKET VALUE: | £526m | |
| TOUCH: | 326-332p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 470p | LOW: 275p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 293p | NET CASH: | £90.8m | |
| Half-year to 31 Jan | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 2.18 | -5.9 | -4.3 | na |
| 2017 | 2.42 | 16 | 10 | na |
| % change | +11 | - | - | - |
Ex-div: na Payment: na | ||||
