Autolus IPO boosts WPCT to top of specialist trust league in June
The Nasdaq float of Autolus, one its top ten investee companies, boosted Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) to top position in the performance league table of biotech/healthcare specialist investment trusts for the month of June, both in terms of price and NAV total return. This will make a welcome break for WPCT shareholders, who have tended to see the trust under-perform the peer group maintained by Marten & Co , especially over a longer periods. However, despite it recent fillip, WPCT still ranks second from bottom over the six-month, year-to-date period and last over the 12 months to 30 June, in both cases for NAV and share price total return.
Nevertheless, this should not diminish for the great success last month’s IPO of Autolus was for WPCT. The CAR-T company’s shares were priced at $17 in the float – a 74% premium to its last funding round – and have since risen to $24, more than doubling the value of WPCT’s shareholding. Prior to the IPO, WPCT held shares accounting for 5.34% of its NAV (4% in ordinary and 1.35% in preference shares). As a result of the IPO, Autolus may now be WPCT’s largest individual holding accounting for over 10% of NAV (its portfolio for end June has not yet been reported).
Even though Autolus is now public, WPCT still has a higher proportion of its NAV invested in private companies than the other trusts in this specialist biotech/health peer group. Investors should therefore watch carefully for news on any possible IPOs for Oxford Nanopore, BenevolentAI or Immunocore, which all are within WPCT’s top 10 investees. Oxford Nanopore and BenevolentAI have, however, both recently completed private fundraisings that valued them at in excess of $2bn and $1bn respectively.
Marten & Co’s latest monthly biotech specialist trust performance update, showing sterling-denominated NAV and share price total return, for June is shown below.
| Investment Trust | NAV, % | Price, % |
| Woodford Patient Capital Trust | 10.1 | 12.6 |
| Tekla Healthcare Investors | 4.6 | 4.2 |
| Biotech Growth | 4.2 | 4.9 |
| Tekla Life Sciences Investors | 3.7 | 3.2 |
| Tekla Healthcare Opportunities | 3.1 | 3.2 |
| International Biotechnology | 2.8 | 2.5 |
| BB Healthcare | 2.7 | 6.2 |
| BlackRock Health Sciences | 2.7 | 6.3 |
| Worldwide Healthcare | 2.2 | 1.9 |
| iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF | 2.2 | 2.2 |
| Tekla World Healthcare | 1.6 | 1.5 |
| Polar Capital Global Healthcare | 1.4 | 3.0 |
| HBM Healthcare Investments | 0.4 | -5.8 |
| BB Biotech | -1.0 | 1.8 |
The biotech specialist trust performance leaguetable for the six month year to date period (to 30 June) is shown below.
| Group/Investment | NAV, % | Price, % |
| BB Healthcare | 13.5 | 11.6 |
| HBM Healthcare Investments | 9.1 | 18.6 |
| BlackRock Health Sciences | 8.4 | 12.0 |
| Tekla Life Sciences Investors | 7.8 | 4.4 |
| Worldwide Healthcare | 7.3 | 5.3 |
| Polar Capital Global Healthcare | 6.5 | 0.7 |
| International Biotechnology | 5.7 | -0.3 |
| iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF | 5.5 | 5.5 |
| Tekla Healthcare Opportunities | 4.3 | 3.6 |
| Tekla Healthcare Investors | 3.7 | 1.9 |
| Tekla World Healthcare | 3.7 | 2.1 |
| Biotech Growth Ord | 3.2 | -2.0 |
| Woodford Patient Capital Trust | 0.7 | -1.7 |
| BB Biotech | -2.8 | 8.9 |