Augmentum Fintech off to a good start – Augmentum Fintech has published its first set of accounts covering the period from launch to 31 March 2019. The NAV immediately after launch was 99p, at the end of the period it stood at 109.6p. The shares were trading at a small premium to that level. The managers have deployed most of the money raised at IPO. The company had £25m of the initial £94m raised in cash at the year end but £15m of that is planned to be spent on follow-on opportunities within the portfolio.
From the 675 potential deals that they have reviewed since launch, the managers have made nine investments.
The NAV increase reflects uplifts in the valuations of Zopa and Interactive Investor. From the manager’s report:
“As we disclosed in our last report, Zopa closed a £60 million funding round in 2018, and subsequently acquired its banking licence with restrictions in December. It is currently gearing up for the removal of those restrictions and the full bank launch later in 2019. It is a long journey to build a bank in the right way, as it should be, and the team have embraced the challenge with rigour and a passion that makes us optimistic for the future.
During the period there was a small amount of secondary stock available to us in interactive investor (“ii”). We bought as much as were able to buy at a 50% increase on our initial holding value. The business has successfully integrated the acquisition of TD Direct and also announced the intention to acquire Alliance Trust Savings which will take its total assets under administration to ~£35 billion and make it the clear No.2 in the direct to customer market. ii also sold Internaxx for £25 million (a non-core Luxembourg asset), a transaction that completed earlier this year.”
AUGM : Augmentum Fintech off to a good start