Braveheart Investment, the Scotland-based syndicate of business angels, yesterday revealed that it had plunged into a loss in its maiden year as a stock market-listed company.
Braveheart Investment, the Scotland-based syndicate of business angels, yesterday revealed that it had plunged into a loss in its maiden year as a stock market-listed company.
Nine-year-old Braveheart, which specialises in providing equity finance for emerging hi-tech university spin-outs, yesterday also announced the creation of a £25m fund with Edinburgh University.
Braveheart Investment, formerly Braveheart Ventures, posted a pre-tax loss of £163,651 for the year to the end of March, compared with a pre-tax profit of £135,561.
The company said the loss included non-recurring costs of £123,544, relating to its aborted flotation last year on the Alternative Investment Market and its subsequent successful flotation in March, following a £5.7m placing net of costs.
Geoffrey Thomson, Braveheart's chief executive, said the remainder of the loss was the result of an IFRS calculation.
Last year, the company raised about £1m from Bank of Scotland to help fund increased investment activity. The bank also took a stake of 10% in Braveheart.
During the financial period, Braveheart made 14 investments totalling £4m and engineered two exits, including the flotation of Eleksen Group on AIM in May 2006 with an initial market capitalisation of £20m.
In April, the company also made its first acquisition as a listed company, acquiring the entire portfolio of the local authority-backed West Lothian Ventures, enlarging Braveheart's portfolio to 32 com- panies. Thomson said the company was looking at other acquisitions this year.
Total revenues climbed to £587,399 for the year to the end of March, compared with £551,632 during the previous year.
Thomson added: "This past year has been transformational for our company. We are exactly where we want to be at the moment, and we have big plans for the current year.
"This latest Edinburgh University fund is a very big deal for us and the university, and we're also working on striking similar deals with other universities in both Scotland and England. We're really starting to spread our wings now."
Under the terms of the new Edinburgh University fund, Braveheart will have right of first refusal to invest in all company and intellectual property investment opportunities that arise at the university - except in the fields of medicine, veterinary medicine and life sciences, where it may take a co-investment position.
The company said the first round of investment would close in spring 2008, and the fund would have a life of eight years, including an investment period of five years.
Earlier this year, Braveheart set up a £12m venture capital fund for technology com- panies in partnership with Strathclyde University.
Under the terms of the new Edinburgh fund, in common with the Strathclyde fund, Braveheart will share 25% of its performance bonus with the university.
In addition, when an investment is made, a payment will be made to the department which has sponsored the investment opportunity, thereby encouraging departments within the university to participate in the commercialisation partnership.
Braveheart has a long-standing relationship with the university, whose spin-outs Wolfson Microelectronics and MicroEmissive Displays were in the Braveheart portfolio prior to their becoming public companies.
Shares in Braveheart yesterday remained flat at 164.5p on very thin volume.
