Chrysalis Investments is making a c.£4m investment in Smart Pension Limited, alongside certain other investors. This investment is in addition to the approximate £2m invested in Smart on 16 January 2024, as previously disclosed.
The terms of this combined approximate £6m investment would likely lead to an increase of approximately 3.7p in the Chryalis’s NAV (based on the NAV at 31 December 2023). A formal revaluation of the portfolio will occur shortly for the quarter ended 31 March 2024, as usual.
The managers say that Smart has grown strongly since Chrysalis first invested in June 2021, and the Smart Pension Master Trust (SPMT) is now the UK’s third biggest master trust operator. SPMT currently has 1.3m members and nearly £5bn of assets under management, out of a group total of approximately £12.5bn.
They say that SPMT and Smart’s international business is powered by Keystone, the group’s proprietary technology platform. Keystone is a cloud-based retirement and savings platform that can serve multiple jurisdictions globally and is ideally suited to consolidation, as high levels of automation (including self-service) drives efficiencies and helps to deliver scale, ultimately leading to better value for members.
The proceeds of the raise will be used to further accelerate growth, including via M&A (SPMT has undertaken seven acquisitions since inception), and will underpin Smart’s drive towards profitability.
At 5 March 2024, and following completion of this investment, the company had £27.2m of liquidity, including a £13.6m position in Wise plc. [and, based on the announcement at the end of last year, this could soon be further augmented by the proceeds of a disposal of a portfolio company, which could free up sufficient liquidity to fund share buybacks.]
CHRY : Chrysalis backs Smart Pension’s growth plans with £4m investment