Strong funds performancee fuels Syncona life science ambitions
Closed-ended investment trust Syncona described its full year to 31 March as “transformative” on Thursday, with net assets at year end of £895.2m, or 136p per share, for a total return of 12.5%.
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The FTSE 250 firm pointed to the successful completion of the acquisition of Syncona Partners by BACIT in December as part of the transformation, with the investment policy expanded and the name change from BACIT to Syncona also taking place during the year.
It said the acquisition of the life science portfolio, as well as the investment team from the Wellcome Trust, added to its strength in the period.
A total of £357.1m of shares were issued, including £169.6m of new capital raised from new and existing investors, as the organisation ‘evolved’ to concentrate on creating, investing in and building global leaders in life science.
The board declared a dividend of 2.3p declared, rising from 2.2p in the prior year.
“This has been an exciting year as we combined two like-minded teams and began the transition to focus on creating, investing in and building globally leading companies which are capable of delivering transformational treatments for patients,” said the company’s CEO of life science Martin Murphy.
“The achievement of this objective will enable us to deliver superior returns for our shareholders.”
Its life science portfolio value increased £24.9m, or 12.4%, to £226.6m since the acquisition in December, which the board said was driven by “significant” strategic and commercial progress in Blue Earth Diagnostics.
The funds portfolio was valued at £582.4m, a net total return of 11.8% and a 44.8% total return since inception in 2012 - or 8.8% per annum.
“Our funds portfolio has continued to build on its strong performance to date and now underpins our life science investment programme,” said fund investment CEO Tom Henderson.
“We are delighted to continue our commitment to make a substantial contribution to charity of £4.75m this year, half of which will go to The Institute of Cancer Research.
“The strength of our team and our innovative structure mean we are well placed to deliver growth and value progression for shareholders.”
Looking ahead, the board said it expected “continued strong performance” and positive progress, as Syncona’s life science portfolio progressed to plan, delivering “strong strategic progress” over the next year.
Key milestones included its PET imaging agent company Blue Earth commencing sales of Axumin in Europe, and gene therapy company NightstaRx targeting inherited forms of blindness, completing its $45m Series C fundraising in June before initiating a “pivotal” Phase III trial in choroideremia and progress its Phase I/II trials for X-linked retinitis pigmentosa.
The company’s T cell immunotherapy company Autolus would also commence three clinical trials in multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and T cell lymphoma.
“Over the past five years Syncona has built deep capabilities in the gene therapy, cell therapy and advanced diagnostics sectors,” Martin Murphy explained.
“These are specialist and innovative areas where we see significant growth and the opportunity to make a real difference for patients.
“Looking ahead we see a strong pipeline of potential new investment opportunities and the outlook for our first full year as a combined business is very positive.”