Update re. Silicon Valley Bank

RNS Number : 7196S

Syncona Limited

13 March 2023

 

Syncona Limited

Update re. Silicon Valley Bank

13 March 2023

Syncona Ltd, a leading healthcare company focused on creating, building and scaling global leaders in life science, today provides an update following the Bank of England's ("BoE") announcement that it intends to apply to the courts to place Silicon Valley Bank UK Limited ("SVBUK") into a Bank Insolvency Procedure, and the announcement that Silicon Valley Bank ("SVB") has been closed by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, and that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") has taken control of SVB and created the Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara to hold its deposits.

Syncona's direct exposure de minimis

Syncona has a de minimis amount of cash and cash equivalents with SVBUK equating to less than 0.4% of its capital base of £653.8 million and 0.2% of Net Asset Value (NAV)[1].

Syncona working closely with portfolio companies to navigate evolving situation

Syncona's portfolio companies have a range of banking relationships, some of which include SVB and SVBUK. Syncona's estimated indirect exposure across its portfolio is c.6% of NAV[2],[3], with all but a de minimus amount with SVBUK.

The Syncona team has been working closely with its portfolio companies to support their ongoing operations and we are pleased to see the announcement from the government that it is working on a solution to ensure the short term operational and cashflow needs of SVBUK customers. The team has also been supporting the companies' engagement with SVBUK and other parties around the recoverability of deposits, working alongside the strong syndicate investors in its portfolio companies.

Next steps

Syncona has a strong capital base to support our companies operationally if required, as we await guidance from the BoE to ascertain the process and timeline for the potential recovery of deposits.

The Company is engaging with the UK Government and will keep the market updated on the evolving situation.

[ENDS]

Enquiries

Syncona Ltd

Annabel Clark / Fergus Witt

Tel: [phone]

FTI Consulting

Ben Atwell / Natalie Garland-Collins / Tim Stamper

Tel: [phone] 

About Syncona

Syncona's purpose is to invest to extend and enhance human life. We do this by creating and building companies to deliver transformational treatments to patients in areas of high unmet need.

Our strategy is to create, build and scale companies around exceptional science to create a diversified portfolio of 20-25 globally leading healthcare businesses, across development stage and therapeutic areas, for the benefit of all our stakeholders. We focus on developing treatments for patients by working in close partnership with world-class academic founders and management teams. Our balance sheet underpins our strategy enabling us to take a long-term view as we look to improve the lives of patients with no or poor treatment options, build sustainable life science companies and deliver strong risk-adjusted returns to shareholders.

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[1] As at 31 December 2022

[2] See footnote one

[3] Calculated by total amount understood by us to be deposited by portfolio companies with SVB and SVBUK, in each case multiplied by Syncona's fully diluted ownership percentage of the relevant company

 

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