Molten Ventures asset value rises in 'productive' year

(Sharecast News) - Molten Ventures reported a gross portfolio value of £1.379bn in its final results on Wednesday, a slight increase from £1.371bn year-on-year, as net assets grew to £1.251bn from £1.194bn. The FTSE 250 venture capital firm said that despite a challenging market environment, it still made notable investments totaling £65m from its balance sheet, while also investing £37m through its managed EIS/VCT funds.

A significant highlight of the year was the acquisition of Forward Partners in a share-for-share exchange in March.

The company said it continued to diversify its investments, acquiring a stake in Seedcamp Fund III in February.

That move aligned with Molten Ventures' strategy of acquiring portfolios poised for near-term realisations.

Furthermore, the firm committed to six new seed funds via its 'Fund of Funds' programme, bringing the total number of funds in this portfolio to 80.

Financially, the company managed to keep operating costs below the targeted 1% of year-end net asset value, with net operating costs at 0.1%.

Molten Ventures also reported cash proceeds of £39m from realisations during the year, and successfully raised £55m net of fees.

The 'Core' portfolio was forecast to achieve a weighted average revenue growth of over 50% for the calendar year 2024, with more than 85% of companies in this portfolio having at least 18 months of cash runway as of 31 March.

On the ESG front, Molten Ventures reported significant strides by launching its inaugural stand-alone sustainability report.

The firm conducted climate workshops for its portfolio companies to enhance climate literacy and alignment with the net zero transition, as part of its climate strategy.

Moreover, Molten Ventures joined the Steering Group of ESG_VC, became a member of Ventures ESG, and continued its commitment to reporting against external standards including PRI, CDP, TCFD, Investing in Women Code, and SECR.

In a noteworthy post-period event, Nasdaq-listed Hologic signed a definitive agreement on 30 April to acquire Endomagnetics, a portfolio company of Molten, in a deal valuing Endomag at $310m.

"This has been a productive year for Molten," said chief executive officer Martin Davis.

"We've continued to enhance our innovative platform to capture the exceptional investment opportunities available in backing high growth, disruptive, UK and European technology firms."

Davis said the underlying performance of the firm's portfolio companies remained strong, with valuations continuing to stabilise as the macroeconomic environment shows signs of improvement.

"Looking ahead, we expect to see a step up in realisations, in the region of £100m of capital back to the balance sheet this financial year, the proceeds of which we expect to deploy towards NAV per share accretive opportunities as outlined in our capital allocation policy today, and in doing so, continuing to maximise value for our shareholders."

At 0815 BST, shares in Molten Ventures were up 6.71% at 359.5p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.