Listed investment group disposes of fund management firm

Listed firm Braveheart Investment Group has sold its Barnsley-based subsidiary company, Viking Fund Managers, for £280,500.

The will involve a cash payment of £110,000 and an additional payment, estimated to be £170,500, due to be paid in cash once the performance fee of an existing fund management contract has been agreed with the client in early 2020.  Cash held by Viking at the date of completion, which totalled £72,000, was not included in the sale and has now been transferred to Braveheart.

The purchasers of Viking are Jonathan Freeman, Ian Brown and James Bromhead. Freeman is a Non-Executive Director of Braveheart and a director of Viking.Brown is currently a consultant to Viking.

In the year ended 31 March 2018, Viking reported pre-tax profits of £404,388 on revenues of £715,523.

However, due to the declining fees that are being generated from existing contracts, the unaudited revenue of Viking for the year ended 31 March 2019 is estimated to be £478,000 and the unaudited profit for the same period is estimated to be £75,000. If no new contracts were entered into by Viking, the revenues for the year ending 31 March 2020 are expected to be significantly lower as the management contract for the Finance Yorkshire Equity Fund expires on 31 December 2019.

As at 31 March 2018, Viking had audited net assets of £794,474, including intercompany loan balances of £457,171 of £45,000, an accrual for the Performance Fee of £174,939 and cash of £42,541. None of these assets are included as part of the sale of Viking.

Braveheart Investment Group said the sale proceeds from the sale of Viking would be used for working capital purposes generally.