In QuotedData’s morning briefing 4 November 2022:
- Castelnau Group (CGL) has made a further investment in Ocula Technologies Holdings Ltd, a data sciences business in which it owns a majority stake. The additional investment of approximately £700,000 is part of a proposed additional funding round which it is hoped will see new, third-party investors become part owners of Ocula alongside Castelnau and Ocula’s founders and employees. Ocula was founded in 2021 with Castelnau investing alongside its co-founders: Thomas McKenna (previously of Bain and Dunnhumby) and Dr Gregory Fletcher (previously Chief Data Scientist at Deloitte) who have developed SaaS insight platforms for numerous global retailers and CPGs. They are joined by co-founder and tech entrepreneur Gerry Buggy. Ocula has signed its first external contracts with two major clients: one based in the UK and one in the US.
- Schroder UK Public Private (SUPP) has made a €1.3 million (£1.1 million) investment in the clinical stage oncology company, iOnctura SA (“iOnctura”), as part of a convertible loan. All of the existing blue chip investor syndicate including M Ventures, INKEF Capital, VI Partners, and 3B Future Health participated in this financing. iOnctura is a clinical-stage biotech with a portfolio of programs that each simultaneously target multiple core mechanisms involved in cancer resistance and survival. iOnctura’s pioneering approach to drug development is expected to offer significant clinical benefits over the traditional approach of targeting a single pathway alone. iOnctura has progressed two therapeutic candidates into mid-stage clinical development: IOA-244, a highly selective allosteric inhibitor of PI3Kδ to treat Treg-driven tumours; and IOA-289, a highly selective, non-competitive autotaxin (ATX) inhibitor to treat cancer associated fibroblast (CAF) driven tumours.
- BlackRock Smaller Companies (BRSC) has published its interim results for the six months ended 31 August 2022. During the period, BRSC’s NAV fell by 15.4%, to 1,572.01p per share, underperforming its benchmark, the Numis Smaller Companies plus AIM (excluding Investment Companies) Index, which fell by 11.1% over the same period. BRSC’s share price fell by 18.9% to 1,344.00p per share over the same period. Performance relative to the benchmark was driven mainly by stock selection, with a number of the manager’s stronger conviction stocks underperforming despite trading well and delivering against their long-term strategies. Watches of Switzerland, Impax Asset Management and Gamma Communications are all cited as examples.
We also have:
- Annual results from Schroder Oriental Income
- Annual results from Fidelity Special Values
- Annual results from Henderson Far East Income
- Annual results from BlackRock Greater Europe