TIDMGROW
RNS Number : 1191C
Draper Esprit PLC
11 April 2017
Strictly embargoed until 07.00: 11 April 2017
Draper Esprit plc
("Draper Esprit" or "the Group")
TRADING UPDATE
Draper Esprit (AIM: GROW, ESM: GRW), a leading venture capital
firm involved in the creation, funding and development of
high-growth digital technology businesses, today gives an update on
trading ahead of its maiden results for the year ended 31 March
2017.
The Group has been very active since its admission to AIM &
ESM in June 2016 ("the IPO") and is seeing strong growth within the
portfolio, both in terms of underlying revenues and the commercial
milestones being achieved by portfolio companies.
As a consequence of this growth and the successful exits, the
Directors anticipate that the gross primary portfolio value of the
investment portfolio will be in excess of GBP112m (30 September
2016: GBP106.9m, at Admission GBP78.7m). Excluding new investments
and realisations across our portfolio of companies, the gross
portfolio value has increased 41% since Admission and 10% over the
six month period since 30 September 2016.
Since the interim results the Group has disposed of its
remaining holding in Horizon Discovery for GBP2.8m (GBP2.4m at
Admission), bringing the total amount of cash generated from
realisations to GBP42m (including amounts held in escrow) since the
IPO of the Company.
We have continued to see a strong pipeline of investment
opportunities, driven by our evergreen capital model and our
reputation as a go to name in European venture capital financing.
Since the interim results we have invested in further new portfolio
companies, including:
-- Clavis, the leading ecommerce insights company
-- Realeyes, a machine learning technology that measures emotions
-- Clue, the digital female health company
-- Ravenpack, the big data analytics provider for financial services
-- Podpoint, the UK's leading provider of electric car charging
solutions for home, workplace and public charging (post-period
end)
In addition, as previously announced, we have increased our
investment in Trustpilot, the global multi-language review company,
bringing the total that we have invested in new and existing
portfolio companies to GBP37m since the IPO (excluding cash
invested by EIS and VCT co-investment funds).
The core existing portfolio including companies such as Graze,
Trustpilot, M-Files, Conversocial, Lyst and Sportpursuit is
progressing well and these portfolio companies now have combined
turnover in excess of $350m (GBP280m), growing in aggregate over
33% annually in 2016 (excluding recently exited companies and de
minimis holdings).
The Group had net cash of GBP24.8m as at 31 March 2017 (30
September 2016: GBP22.2m). In addition, following the acquisition
of Elderstreet VCT, the announced GBP20m VCT and EIS fund raisings
are progressing ahead of our expectations.
Given the strong pipeline of potential new deals, the Company is
considering its options to raise further equity to increase its
available cash resources in order to capitalise on these
opportunities.
Simon Cook, CEO Draper Esprit commented:
"We continue to grow Net Asset Value, and to generate meaningful
cash returns over time. With our hands-on board involvement, our
existing portfolio is growing strongly and we have been busy
investing in the exciting new generation of companies as well as
supporting the growth of our existing market leaders.
Overall, we have continued to demonstrate that we can create
value for our shareholders, realise cash exits and help build
strong portfolio companies and we look forward to the next
financial year with confidence and optimism."
The above information is presented on an unaudited basis.
*ends*
Enquiries
Draper Esprit plc
Simon Cook (Chief Executive
Officer)
Ben Wilkinson (Chief Financial
Officer) +44 (0)20 7931 8800
Numis Securities
Nominated Adviser & Joint
Broker
Alex Ham
Garri Jones
Richard Thomas
Paul Gillam
Jamie Loughborough +44 (0)20 7260 1000
Goodbody Stockbrokers +353 1 667 0420
ESM Adviser & Joint Broker
Don Harrington
Linda Hickey
Charlotte Craigie +44 (0)20 3841 6202
Belvedere Communications
(PR)
John West
Kim van Beeck +44 (0)20 3567 0510
Notes to Editors
Draper Esprit (www.draperesprit.com) was founded in 2006, and is
one of the largest and most active VC firms in Europe, helping
entrepreneurs to build global ground-breaking technology companies
through hands-on board level support, internationalisation and
commercialisation activities and investment.
In 2016, with the support of new institutional investors and
existing shareholders, Draper Esprit transformed into a listed PLC
model (LSE: GROW.L, ESM GRW.I) to take a longer term, multi-stage,
patient capital approach. In recent years, Draper Esprit's exits
have generated more than $4.0 billion in combined enterprise
value.
Draper Esprit is the exclusive Western European member of the
Silicon Valley-based Draper Global Network, with offices around the
world and portfolio companies including Baidu, Skype, Space X,
Tesla and other world leading companies.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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