Frontier IP has announced results for the year to 30 June 2024. You can view the full document here
Highlights
Financial highlights
- Fair value of our equity portfolio broadly in line with prior year at £33,203,000 (2023: £32,964,000) following the unrealised gain on investment of £2,468,000 (2023: loss £1,780,000), additions of £68,000 (2023: £745,000) offset by disposals of £2,297,000 (2023 : 5,713,000)
- Disposals in our equity portfolio related to the remaining holding in Exscientia which generated cash of £2,547,000 (2023: £4,926,000) realising a gain of £249,000 in the period under review (2023: loss of £786,000)
- Unrealised gain on the revaluation of investments of £1,282,000 (2023: unrealised loss of £966,000) comprising unrealised gains on equity investments of £2,468,000 (2023: unrealised loss of £1,780,000) and unrealised losses on debt investments of £1,187,000 (2023: unrealised gains of £814,000)
- Cash balances at 30 June 2024 of £2,298,000 (2023: £4,603,000)
- Net assets per share as at 30 June 2024 reduced by 2.6% to 79.7p (30 June 2023: 81.8p)
- Loss before tax of £1,337,000 significantly improved on prior year (2023: loss before tax £4,370,000)
- Basic loss per share of 2.01p (2023: basic loss per share 5.85p)
Corporate highlights
· Completed the exit of Exscientia, generating cash proceeds of £2.55 million from the sale of the outstanding equity stake. In total, the Group sold a total of 1,564,000 Exscientia American Depositary Shares between 10 January 2022 and 29 February 2024 for net proceeds of approximately £14 million. The original cost of these shares was less than £2,000
- Appointed new Chief Financial Officer, Jo Stent, replacing Jim Fish who stood down from the Board of Directors as Chief Financial Officer to take up a new position as Portfolio Finance Director. Jo is a chartered accountant with nearly 30 years’ experience in senior roles across a broad range of sectors and geographies. She was most recently CFO at Aim-quoted Argentex Group Plc. Her previous roles include CFO of the European Tour and Ryder Cup Europe, CFO of Vodafone Americas and senior positions at Telus Communications and Deloitte
- Professor Dame Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, who joined the Frontier IP Board of Directors in October 2021, assumed the role of Chair replacing Andrew Richmond. She was previously the Senior Independent Director on the Board.
- The Group took an equity stake in early-stage business Deakin Bio-Hybrid Materials, which is initially developing sustainable alternatives to ceramic tiles.
- The Group announced it holds a 4.26 per cent stake in DiaGen, a Canadian company focused on AI-driven protein and peptide design for medical applications
Portfolio highlights
- The Group’s portfolio has a mix of companies at different stages of maturity and it is now considering the potential for realising value from several companies. There was also strong technical progress across the portfolio. Despite the difficult funding environment, four companies raised money during the period and post the year end. We continued to strengthen management teams.
Highlights included:
- Alusid announced it is exploring options for a potential initial public offering after raising £1.13 million in a funding round including a £500,000 investment from Octopus AIM VCT plc and Octopus AIM VCT 2 plc funds. The company successfully scaled up manufacture of its floor tiles
- CamGraPhIC secured a loan facility for £1.5 million and made good progress in development and scale up of its advanced graphene photonics technology. The company is working with a number of potential customers, including multinationals in the semiconductor and telecommunications sector. It is attracting interest from potential government and financial backers
- Pulsiv strengthened its board with the appointment of serial entrepreneur Dr Mark Gerhard as Chair and Dr Tim Moore as Chief Product Officer. After the year end, the company launched the world’s most energy efficient 65W USB-C fast charger reference design, which is now garnering interest from potential customers
- Nandi Proteins won its first licensing agreement with a global food ingredients business for its meat / fat replacer. Post period end, the company announced it had secured investment from Nesta and Scottish Enterprise
- The Vaccine Group appointed an advisory board and entered into a collaboration with The Pirbright Institute to develop vaccines to combat African swine fever. Post period end, Defra granted more than £1 million to a project led by the company to develop a vaccine against Streptococcus suis
- Cambridge Raman Imaging commercially launched its ultra-fast lasers for use in Raman imaging technology. Revenues exceeded expectations. Frontier IP put in place a loan facility to support growth
- Fieldwork Robotics raised more than £2 million through an investment round led by Elbow Beach Capital and appointed David Fulton as Chief Executive Officer.
- Post period end developments included:
- GraphEnergyTech raised £1 million through an investment round led by Aramco Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of Aramco
- Deakin Bio-Hybrid Materials raised £693,000 through an oversubscribed funding round led by Green Angel Ventures
