Trading Update

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 £112m (30 September 2016: £106.9m, at Admission £78.7m). 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 £2.8m (£2.4m at Admission), bringing the total amount of cash generated from realisations to £42m (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 £37m 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 (£280m), growing in aggregate over 33% annually in 2016 (excluding recently exited companies and de minimis holdings).

The Group had net cash of £24.8m as at 31 March 2017 (30 September 2016: £22.2m). In addition, following the acquisition of Elderstreet VCT, the announced £20m 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)	[phone]
Numis Securities Nominated Adviser & Joint Broker Alex Ham Garri Jones Richard Thomas Paul Gillam Jamie Loughborough	[phone]
Goodbody Stockbrokers ESM Adviser & Joint Broker Don Harrington Linda Hickey Charlotte Craigie	[phone] [phone]
Belvedere Communications (PR) John West Kim van Beeck	[phone]

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.

 

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