Posted by Isabella Cookson, 27 Jul 2017

Draper Esprit (AIM: GROW, ESM: GRW), a leading venture capital firm involved in the creation, funding and development of high-growth digital technology businesses, today announces its maiden final results for the year ended 31 March 2017.

Financial highlights

· Gross Primary Portfolio value increased by 43% to £112.7 million as at 31 March 2017(30 September 2016 £106.9 million, at IPO £78.7 million)

· Net Assets including goodwill increased by 17% to £150.7 million as at 31 March 2017(£128.7 million at IPO)

· NAV per share of 370 pence (as at 31 March 2017)

· NAV per share, excluding goodwill, of 319 pence (as at 31 March 2017)

· Profit after tax of £33.2 million

Operational highlights

· Invested across the Group in 13 new and 6 existing portfolio companies

· Core portfolio holdings have grown by 30%

· Significant cash realisations of £42.0 million in plc (including amounts held in escrow), generating an uplift in value of £24.4 million against the holding value at IPO and highlighting the Group's prudent approach to valuation

· £37.1 million of these cash proceeds already deployed in the period into the next generation of opportunities and to further support our existing portfolio

· Hired experienced team as the next generation of investment professionals to lead the business into the next stage with 6 hires across London and Ireland, taking the total investment team to 14 (including Elderstreet) and appointed Ben Wilkinson as new CFO

Post FY End Highlights

· £160.0 million additional capital raised across the Group post year end, comprising £100.0 million raised from new and existing shareholders in the plc, £25.0 million across the EIS and VCT funds and further £35.0 million for secondary deals

· £25.0 million invested across the Group in new and existing portfolio companies, including Push Doctor, Perkbox, Graphcore and Trustpilot

Simon Cook, CEO Draper Esprit commented:

'At the time of the IPO in June 2016, we set out to demonstrate our model in a public market setting of investing in high growth private technology start-ups. Through our fast-growing portfolio and a series of successful exits and further investments, we have demonstrated that the public venture capital model is working.

'Post year end we continued onto the next stage of the strategy by raising an additional £100.0 million equity from our supportive institutional shareholder base. As a wider Group, we have also raised significant co-investment funds through our EIS, VCT and secondary funds, with £60.0 million raised in 2017 to date.

'Having scaled our capital resources, the Group is now even better positioned to invest larger amounts in more companies, growing our holdings in our most promising investments.

'We invest in companies that build the future. In the year ended 31 March 2017, the Company or co-investment funds managed by the Group invested £43.0 million including £34.0 million in 13 new companies, including Graphcore, LifeSum, PushDoctor, Resolver, Perkbox, Realeyes, Clavis, Clue, RavenPack and Podpoint. The portfolio is diverse: whether they are building a whole new infrastructure for developing Artificial Intelligence applications (Graphcore), the future of tracking female health (Clue) or the infrastructure necessary for electric vehicles (Podpoint), all the companies are united by a strong team and an ability to be global leaders.

'As we reflect on our maiden set of results, it is clear our model is working and we are growing Net Asset Value substantially to the benefit of our shareholders.'

Availability of Annual Report and Notice of AGM

The Annual Report and Accounts for the financial year ended 31 March 2017 and notice of the Annual General Meeting ('AGM') of Draper Esprit will be will be available on Draper Esprit's website at http://draperesprit.com/and posted to shareholders by 11 August 2017

Draper Esprit plc published this content on 27 July 2017 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 27 July 2017 08:54:06 UTC.

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