Draper Esprit’s (GROW) performance at the half-year mark certainly isn’t belied by its ticker judging by the 44 per cent increase in the gross value of its portfolio. The period-end figure came in at £162.8m, reflecting a 22 per cent rise in the fair value of its assets, together with further investments amounting to £26.5m. The net cash position has strengthened considerably following a £100m capital-raise, even allowing for additional investments in existing portfolio companies.
The dual-listed venture capital firm highlighted investments in three new portfolio companies: IESO digital health; insure-tech business Premfina; and Verve, a platform for word-of-mouth sales software. The first of the three investments – IESO digital health – dovetails with opportunities Draper Esprit has identified in the digital healthcare market; specifically “a strong clinical platform and scalable business model” which could alleviate some of the problems linked to overstretched resources employed in mental healthcare provision.
The day following publication of these figures, the company announced that it had acquired Seedcamp's first and second funds for £17.9m. This includes a stake in fintech unicorn Transferwise, along with other investments including computer code review platform Codacy, fishing social network app Fishbrain and smart kitchen technology business Winnow. The last valuation for the Seedcamp funds came in at £23.5m, implying an automatic £5.6m uplift for the portfolio, and the investment forms part of a targeted £75m investment in seed funds across Europe over the next five years.
Numis is forecasting net asset value (NAV) of 369p for the March 2018 year-end, against 324p in 2017.
| DRAPER ESPRIT (GROW) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 355p | MARKET VALUE: | £ 254m | |
| TOUCH: | 350-360p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 356p | LOW: 320p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | NIL | PE RATIO: | 8 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 372p | NET CASH: | £92m | |
| Half-year to | Turnover | Pre-tax | Earnings per | Dividend |
| 30 Sep | (£m) | profit (£m) | share (p) | per share (p) |
| 2016 | 0.7 | 26.5 | 64.0 | nil |
| 2017 | 1.3 | 20.9 | 29.0 | nil |
| % change | +83 | -21 | -55 | - |
| Ex-div: | - | |||
| Payment: | - |
