Seneca Growth Capital signals pleasing year for both its share pools

Haydock-based finance specialist Seneca Growth Capital said both its share pools performed “very well” during the year to December 31, 2021.

Net assets for its ordinary shares were £3.157m during the year, compared with £2.453m in 2020, while B share net assets were £14.606m, compared with £8.317m.

The return on ordinary activities, after tax, for ordinary shares, was £1.029m, against £1.045m the previous year, and for B shares, £1.067m, up from £252,000 a year ago.

Chairman, John Hustler, said: “The last year saw difficult trading conditions continuing to challenge UK businesses as the Government sought to combat new and existing strains of COVID-19.

“Despite those challenges, I am pleased to report that both share pools have performed very well.

“The Total Return (NAV per share plus cumulative dividends per share) for each share class increased during the year with the B share increasing by 11.6% to 109.1p (2020: 1.8% to 97.8p) and the ordinary share increasing by 13.3% to 108.2p (2020: 15.5% to 95.5p).”

He said, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the B share pool has seen a 37% increase in the NAV (inclusive of dividends paid) from 79.5p to 109.1p at 31 December 2021.

Seneca also continued the development of the B share pool during the year both in terms of fundraising and investment activity.

In October 2021, the company launched its fourth offer for B shares and has now raised £14.5m following the recent allotment of £900,000 of shares in December 2021. The share offer will remain open until October 26, 2022, unless it reaches its total target of £20m before then.

The company made eight investments into seven new B share pool investee companies in the year in addition to achieving one full exit and three partial exits.

As a result, the company’s B share pool closed the year with sixteen investments valued at £8m compared with 10 investments valued at £4m at December 31, 2020.

The ordinary share pool made a partial realisation in the year from one of its two remaining AIM-quoted investments.

During the year, the Scancell share price remained generally up from the previous period close of 13.5p, ending the year at 19.5p as a result of positive progress made with various clinical trials.

The ordinary share pool was able to realise 1,000,000 shares at an average price of 21.7p per share during the year providing an average weighted return of 3.6x over original investment cost. Scancell accounts for 68% of the ordinary share pool’s NAV at the year end.

With 46% of the B share pool’s NAV as at December 31, 2021, represented by cash, the company’s B share pool has ended the year well placed to take advantage of the growing number of AIM-quoted and private company investment opportunities being reviewed by Seneca, Mr Hustler said.