Portfolio Update

RNS Number : 5133Z

Duke Royalty Limited

13 January 2020

 

13 January 2020

Duke Royalty Limited

("Duke Royalty", "Duke" or the "Company")

Portfolio Update

Duke Royalty Limited (AIM: DUKE), a provider of alternative capital solutions to a diversified range of profitable and long-established businesses in Europe and abroad, is pleased to update the market regarding three investments completed in December into existing portfolio companies. These investments are made in line with the Company's intended deployment of proceeds raised from the October 2019 equity issue.   

·    Approximately £2.0 million follow-on investment into Welltel (Ireland) Limited ("Welltel"), which takes the total investment to £8.1 million.  The entire facility was re-financed on Duke's typical investment terms.  The proceeds were used to acquire Invistech Limited, a long established and profitable IT managed service and telecommunications business.  Invistech provides strategic geographical diversification and the opportunity to cross sell to Invistech's 450 SME customer base in southern Ireland

·    £1.0 million follow-on investment into Trimite Global Coatings Limited ("Trimite") to support the expansion of its international operations and to conclude some legacy site rationalisation in the UK

·    €4.3 million follow-on investment into Temarca B.V. ("Temarca"), enabling it to acquire the only leased river cruise boat in its fleet, taking its fleet to three wholly owned vessels. A recent independent valuation conducted in November 2019 on the MS Carmen by Van Pelt and Co BV ascribed an estimated value on the vessel of €5.4 million.  Duke retains a first mortgage on each of the three vessels owned by Temarca

Following these investments, Duke still retains approximately £31 million of additional liquidity available for new deployments, when considering existing cash resources plus the line of credit available from Honeycomb Investment Trust.  This liquidity assumes a maximum of 30% loan to value in line with Duke's target maximum gearing percentage

In regard to some recent operational updates that have occurred within the Duke portfolio, Duke is pleased to announce the following highlights from some of its royalty partners:

·    In November 2019, Brightwater won 'Best Large Recruiter of the Year' at the 2019 National Recruitment Federation Awards in Dublin

·    Step Investments (via its 85% subsidiary Pearl and Dean) won back the fast-growing Everyman contract from DCM in November 2019

·    Welltel was a winner for the sixth consecutive year of the Deloitte "Fast-50" award in November 2019, which is an award given to the fifty fastest growing technology companies in Ireland

·    In December 2019, Xtremepush was awarded the Best Marketing & Services Supplier at the SBC Awards 2019 for the betting and gaming industry, held at Battersea Evolution

Neil Johnson, CEO of Duke, said:

"We enter 2020, and our last fiscal quarter, with enhanced monthly cashflows from a diversified portfolio which provides Duke shareholders with exposure to 19 underlying profitable companies.  As these follow-on investments demonstrate, we are long-term partners to our companies, an approach which in turn provides Duke shareholders with the opportunity to participate in the growth of a diverse range of private companies.  Helping existing Royalty Partners to acquire other businesses or hard assets enhances the underlying diversification and security of our revenue stream.

"We have significant means for further royalty investments to deploy against our pipeline of opportunities, and we look forward to updating the market in due course."

As at 31 December 2019, the portfolio breakdown was as follows: 

Royalty Partner	Total Investment Amount	Date of Initial Investment
Temarca B.V.	€14,052,000	April 2017
Berkley Recruitment (Group) Limited	€1,300,000	June 2017
Welltel (Ireland) Limited	£8,127,000	June 2017
Lynx Equity (UK) Limited	£12,000,000	October 2017
Xtremepush Limited	£2,000,000	February 2018
Trimite Global Coatings Limited	£11,000,000	March 2018
United Glass Group Ltd	£7,500,000	April 2018
Step Investments Limited	£3,000,000	June 2018
BHPC Limited	€4,600,000	August 2018
InterHealth Canada	£10,000,000	August 2018
Brightwater Selection (Ireland) Limited	€1,875,000	September 2018
MRDB Holdings Limited Group	£10,000,000	February 2019

For further information, please contact www.dukeroyalty.com, or contact:

Duke Royalty Limited	Neil Johnson / Charlie Cannon Brookes / Hugo Evans	[phone]
Cenkos Securities plc  (Nominated Adviser and Broker)	Julian Morse / Michael Johnson / Stephen Keys / Callum Davidson	[phone]
Newgate Communications (PR)	Elisabeth Cowell / Ian Silvera     / Megan Kovach	[phone]

About Duke Royalty

Duke Royalty Limited provides alternative capital solutions to a diversified range of profitable and long-established businesses in Europe and abroad. Duke Royalty's experienced team provide financing solutions to private companies that are in need of capital but whose owners wish to maintain equity control of their business. Duke Royalty's royalty investments are intended to provide robust, stable, long term returns to its shareholders. Duke Royalty is listed on the AIM market under the ticker DUKE and is headquartered in Guernsey.

 

END

 

 

PFUMZGMMLZLGGZG