Results for the six months ended 30 September 2013. NAV falls to 40.7p from 55.3p in part because of an 11% adverse shift in the sterling / rouble exchange rate but also because the valuations of AURR’s remaining investments has been reduced.
AURR’s valuation of Unistream fell to £10.7m from £12m – growth has been lower than expected. AURR’s valuation of Superstroy (DIY business) was cut to £6.3m from £10.4m – sales have been lower than budgeted, AURR’s valuation of Flexinvest/Kreditmart was cut to £6.7m from £10.4m – the reduction is attributable to loan and credit card write downs and a reduction in the Board’s expectations of a likely sale price for the business in the current adverse economic and competitive environment. In addition, AURR has agreed to forego additional earn-out payments on the sale of OSG in return for a payment of $4.25m held in escrow and a further $0.375m – citing deteriorating prospects of OSG achieving threshold EBITDA targets for the year ended 31 March 2014.
AURR also said it remained concerned about the immediate future of the Russian economy.