Symetrica – RadSeeker DNDO order
$10.2 million in RadSeeker orders from Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO)
DANBURY, Conn., April 16, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Smiths Detection today announces a $10.2 million order from a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) office for its next-generation, self-calibrating radiation detection system, RadSeeker.
Fred Facemire, Director of Technology, Smiths Detection said: “RadSeeker’s efficiency in identifying real threats and reliability makes it the right tool to help protect our nation’s borders. The low cost of ownership combined with Smiths Detection’s globally-recognized training and service support make RadSeeker an excellent overall value for the Department of Homeland Security and our other customers.”
– See more here
Microsaic Systems – appoints FD
Microsaic Systems PLC has appointed Andrew Darby as Finance Director, with effect from April 16.
Bateman will continue as a consultant for a short period in order to support a smooth transition, said the firm.
Darby joins Microsaic on Wednesday April 16 from Active Risk Group PLC, a former AIM-listed company at which he served as Chief Operations Officer and CFO.
Revolymer – funding award
Revolymer PLC said Monday that it had won a GBP500,000 funding award from the UK government’s Technology Strategy Board as part of a consortium that will develop a new sustainable coating designed to prevent marine organisms from accumulating on vessels and underwater structures.
Omega Diagnostics – Trading Update
Trading Update and Notice of Results
Omega (AIM: ODX), the medical diagnostics company focused on allergy, food intolerance and infectious disease, announces that results for the year to 31 March 2014 will be in line with market expectations. Revenues for the year are expected to show a small increase on 2013 and adjusted profit before tax (before acquisition costs, share based payments, IFRS-related discount unwinds and amortisation of intangible assets) will be significantly higher than that achieved in the prior year and is anticipated to be approximately £1.10m.
Current trading performance
|
|
Revenue to 31 March 2014 |
Revenue to 31 March 2013 |
% increase |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food Intolerance |
£5.18m |
£4.39m |
+ 18% |
|
Allergy/Autoimmune |
£3.96m |
£4.16m |
– 5% |
|
Infectious Disease/Other |
£2.45m |
£2.71m |
– 10% |
|
TOTAL |
£11.59m |
£11.26m |
+ 3% |
Infectious Disease – Visitect® CD4 update
Further to the completion of the technology transfer announced in February 2014, Visitect CD4 tests have been supplied for initial field validation studies to evaluate performance in India and Kenya. To date, over 60 patient samples have been run in India and a 200-patient sample evaluation has just been run in Kenya. The latter Kenyan study also included evaluation of the Visitect CD4 mHealth App Smartphone Reader. Initial feedback from healthcare operators in the field confirms that the evaluations are progressing well to date.
A full data analysis of the study results will be undertaken in each case, where the results for Visitect® CD4 will be compared with standard flow cytometry results for the same patient samples. The success of these initial studies will lead to a roll-out of validation studies into other countries.
In parallel with these trial activities, claim support studies have commenced in the UK to support the regulatory requirements in connection with CE-Marking the test.
Both these programmes remain on track with management’s expectation and a further update on progress will be provided in due course.
Allergy Development – IDS-iSYS update
Progress has continued on a 40-panel allergy menu to be launched on the IDS-iSYS instrument. Since the last update, the Company confirms that the cumulative number of allergens through claim support has risen to eight. A further 14 allergens have completed optimisation, five of which are part-way through claim support and a further 11 allergens are undergoing optimisation. The Board believes that continued progress with its development programme is a cause for increased confidence in terms of commercialisation.
Outlook and Notice of Results
Trading in the second half of the year has been stronger than in the first half and has enabled the Group to meet market expectation from the core business prior to a contribution from Visitect® CD4. The performance of the Food Intolerance division has mitigated challenges in other parts of the business and prospects for this division remain encouraging for the new financial year.
The Company continues to strengthen its relationships with key aid and procurement agencies and continues to develop a strong marketing presence in the HIV/AIDS Global Health arena. The Board remains very confident that Visitect® CD4 will deliver significant shareholder value.
Omega will announce its financial results for the year ended 31 March 2014 on Monday 23 June 2014.
Commenting on the trading update, Andrew Shepherd, Chief Executive, said:“We are pleased with the overall performance of our core business leading to increased profitability significantly ahead of the growth in revenue. Food Intolerance in particular performed strongly in the second half of the year. Visitect® CD4 tests are currently undergoing initial field validation studies in India and Kenya and early feedback confirms things have progressed well to date. In addition, our allergy programme with the IDS-iSYS instrument has continued to progress with more allergens completing the optimisation and claim support phases since the last update in February.”
OxfordPV – appoints CFO
Parkwalk portfolio company Oxford Photovoltaics has announced the appointment of David Smyth as its Chief Financial Officer.
David Smyth joins Oxford PV’s senior management team and will play an integral role in raising the next tranche of funding required to commercialise Oxford PV’s ground-breaking solar technology.
Formed in 2010, Oxford PV is a spin-out from Oxford University that has exclusively licensed and is developing a photovoltaic technology, which has the potential to deliver low cost, efficient solar cells that can be applied as a thin film onto glass building facades.
Based at Begbroke Science Park, Oxford PV’s objective is to deliver a massively scalable product for the Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) market and other solar energy sectors such as Utility and Automotive. The company has already raised £7m in equity and grant funding and has made major progress, with its perovskite-based solar cells achieving impressive levels of efficiency.
David brings significant experience to Oxford PV having raised more than £4bn in multiple fund raising exercises including two IPOs.
Portfolio company – Xeros – successful IPO
We are delighted to announce that Xeros, a Parkwalk portfolio company, successfully listed on AIM on the 25th March 2014.
Parkwalk first invested in October 2010, at 33.0p per share equivalent (26.4p net of initial tax relief), and the IPO price of 123p represents a 4.65x tax-free return for our investors in a little over three years. At this level, this exit alone would return more to investors than their entire subscription into the Parkwalk Fund I.
Meanwhile, another portfolio company, Horizon Discovery, is also listing on AIM later this week (as highlighted in the Daily Telegraph here) – this should also show a significant uplift for our investors.
Horizon Discovery – Record AIM $113m IPO
Parkwalk portfolio company Horizon Discovery is set to create UK stock market history with a significantly oversubscribed AIM IPO on Thursday March 27, with a market cap of £120.5 million after raising £68.6m from institutional investors against an original target of £25m.
Read more here.
The 2014 Budget
Implications for Tax Efficient Venture Capital investing and Parkwalk in particular
The most significant change announced was that the rate of the R&D tax credit payable to loss making small and medium enterprises is being increased from 11% to 14.5%. This is a significant boost to all the companies in our universe and will help our investment pound stretch further.
The Budget announces that the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) will be made permanent, and that the capital gains tax reinvestment tax relief, which provides relief on half the qualifying gains that individuals reinvest in SEIS qualifying companies, will also be made a permanent feature of the scheme. As you might have picked up from the speech, the scheme has now raised over £135m in funding for more than 1600 start-ups.
The Budget also announces some other changes to the tax-advantaged venture capital schemes (Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs)), to ensure that the tax relief continues to be well-targeted to encourage individuals to make investments into higher risk companies that may not otherwise be able to access finance.
- From Royal Assent of the Finance Bill, the government will restrict scope for companies benefiting from government support under DECC Renewable Obligations Certificates (ROCs) and Renewable Heat Incentives (RHI) to also be eligible for tax-relieved investment under the Venture Capital schemes*. I’m sure many of you will be aware that the government took similar action to exclude investment into electricity generation companies benefiting from Feed-in-Tariffs in 2011.
- As the Renewables Obligation is due to be replaced with Contracts for Difference, and in order to avoid multiple future changes to the venture capital schemes, the government will consult on a broader approach to reduce investment into lower-risk companies already benefiting from other government subsidies.
- The VCT sector has been engaging in consultation on VCT share premium accounts, following announcements at Autumn Statement to limit the use of particular VCT buy-back arrangements. The Budget confirms that legislation will be introduced at Finance Bill to prevent VCTs from returning share capital to investors within three years of the end of the accounting period in which the VCT issued the shares. Distributions made from realised profits will not be affected by this change, and the measure will only apply to new shares issued. A full summary of the government’s decision is set out at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/venture-capital-trusts-share-buy-backs
Also on VCTs, a number of you have been in touch regarding the recent HMRC decision to withdraw approval from two of Oxford Technology VCTs. This is obviously a very unfortunate situation for those directly involved. Some commentary has questioned whether the decision here represents a change in government policy, which it does not. The HMRC decision simply reflects the current rules for dealing with those rare circumstances where there is a breach of VCT rules. The government remains supportive of the VCT regime and the other tax-advantaged venture capital schemes, and believes that the regime plays a key role in facilitating access to finance for smaller businesses with growth potential.
The Budget announced that the government will run a broader consultation and evidence gathering exercise over the summer. In particular, this will explore options for EIS and SEIS to accommodate the use of convertible loans. The evidence gathered from this consultation will also be used to support our negotiations with the European Commission as we bring our EIS and VCT schemes into line with the updated “risk finance” state aid guidelines.
Conclusion
Generally the budget indicates continued government support for the EIS scheme in general and those in technology investments in particular. The reining in of those investments (generally VCT) which looked to benefit from double tax incentives, may mean more funds looking to invest in our investment strategy.