Syncona’s board is planning to offer shareholders a vote on a change of investment policy. The proposal is for an orderly realisation of its assets. The aim will be to return cash to shareholders in a timely manner while maximising value.

A new capital allocation policy would allow the company to support existing portfolio companies when necessary.

The company is also exploring options to accelerate realisations, which may include a sale of a small portion of its interests in certain of its portfolio companies at a modest implied premium to the current share price and at a discount to NAV.

The board is exploring the possibility of providing institutional shareholders with an opportunity to roll their interests into a new private investment vehicle. Discussions are ongoing with a number of sophisticated institutional and strategic investors and London based university and research partners around participating in the new fund.

If the new fund is successful in raising sufficient capital, the company would seek to enter into the sale of a small portion of its interests in certain of its portfolio companies to the new fund.

[QD comment, James Carthew: It feels to me as though small shareholders – like me – are going to be penalised here. Unable to participate in the new fund, and forced to watch as holdings from Syncona are sold at knock down prices – setting up the new fund for a good start at our expense.]

The company also published results for the yer to end March 2025. The NAV fell by 9.5% to 170.9p. This poor performance was primarily driven by the decrease in Autolus Therapeutics’ share price and partial write-downs at Resolution Therapeutics and Biomodal, which outweighed valuation uplifts from private portfolio financings and accretive share buybacks. The underlying fall in the value of the portfolio was 17%.

£43.0m of shares repurchased through the share buyback at an average 37.4% discount to NAV added 4.96p to the NAV.

SYNC : Syncona wants to pursue a managed wind down