Seneca Growth Capital Vct Share Discussion Threads

[rivaldo] 10/9/2020 15:24

SCLP is now up to 11.625p. So HYG's holding is now worth £1.52m, with 400,000 ODX shares (i.e £300,000 at 74p), £500,000 cash and £200k each in Arecor and Fuel 3D and £120k in Insense Ltd.

That's a total of around £2.8m compared to the current £1.7m m/cap. Hmmmmm.

[jonesy100] 27/8/2020 07:20

And some interesting SCLP news. As ever, the long gamehttps://www.investegate.co.uk/scancell-hlds--sclp-/rns/funds-awarded-by-innovate-uk-for-covid-19-vaccine/202008270700052594X/

[jonesy100] 13/8/2020 09:34

Tried to top up but couldn't so maybe there are some buyers around. 14p to sell is way overdone with new NAV around mid 20s

[rivaldo] 13/8/2020 09:16

Today's fall is due to the 8p divi - though the price has actually been marked down 10p. And someone sold 5k at just 14p! I wonder if they were unnecessarily panicked by the fall.

I calculate that leaves around £500k cash, plus 400k ODX shares, 13.05m SCLP shares, plus essentially £200k each in Arecor and Fuel 3D and £120k in Insense Ltd. There are 8.115m shares in issue.

[jonesy100] 30/7/2020 19:40

Just digesting this. Nice divi but share your frustration with ODX. Not sure why they took profits so low. My calculation is that at today's share price the new NAV is 33.8p so 25.8p ex div. Given usual discount, new baseline is 20p

[rivaldo] 30/7/2020 08:26

H1 results are out - NAV was 30.2p at 30th June.

But we get an 8p interim divi - wahey! Thanks to the ODX share sales, which have left HYG with £1.16m of net cash.

Since 30th June, the 400,000 ODX shares have increased from 41p to today's 64p, whilst the 13.05m SCLP shares have increased from 5.2p to today's 6.75p.

OR Productivity has been a disaster and is now completely written off. Glad I wasn't drawn in to investing in this separately. I note there's no explanation as to what happened.

HYG is essentially now almost a complete bet on SCLP, with solid backing from ODX and Arecor. I wish they'd retained more ODX shares, as there could be lots more upside:

[toffeeman] 15/6/2020 12:24

OT: Ta Riv

I think that EIS funds are better (given that i don't need divs) because you can offset losses when cos go under against income tax.

Best

[rivaldo] 15/6/2020 12:02

Great news re Arecor today - and for diabetics - with excellent phase 1 results:



OT : Toffeeman, sorry, I can't help you. I came across HYG randomly and don't really invest in VCTs as a rule. Perhaps someone on one of the various tax threads can help.

[toffeeman] 26/5/2020 17:05

Hi Riv,

Am looking to invest in a VCT for the current tax year - what is the best source of performance info?

Trying to trade off the dividend in a VCT vs the loss relief on EIS.

Best

[rivaldo] 20/5/2020 08:48

Results from Oxford Technology VCT 2 this morning had these encouraging extracts about two of HYG's portfolio companies:



"Arecor Limited (Arecor) has become our largest holding representing 28% of NAV, following a valuation increase as a result of its excellent progress. It recently announced that it has achieved an important second contractual milestone with one of its pharmaceutical partners. The first milestone was triggered in October 2017 following the signature of a license agreement between the parties. It has also announced a multi-product collaboration with a US-based clinical stage biotechnology company. Under the collaboration, Arecor will leverage its proprietary technology to develop liquid formulations of two proprietary novel products, one in oncology and one in a rare genetic orphan condition. It is well placed to expand and remains a bright spot in the portfolio."

"ImmBio (more formally known as ImmunoBiology Ltd) has signed a commercial licence with the China National Biotech Group for its pneumococcal vaccine PnuBioVax and the first milestone payment has been received. Further milestones payments will be made when the transfer of certain technology is complete. This has been delayed partly by Covid-19 related events. The company is seeking to licence its vaccine in other countries and is pursuing grant applications. We have continued to support the working capital of the company with 2 small share placings during the year totalling £28k. However the continuing delays have led us to reduce the valuation during in the current year."

[rivaldo] 04/5/2020 10:26

Nice to see someone pick up on the holdings in ODX and SCLP:



"Seneca VCT leaps on Omega’s Covid-19 success
1 May 2020

Seneca Growth Capital VCT, a small venture capital trust, has bucked the turmoil in global markets thanks to a holding in Omega Diagnostics, a company developing an antibody test for Covid-19.

Seneca Growth Capital VCT (HYG ), a small venture capital trust, has bucked the turmoil in global markets thanks to a holding in a company developing an antibody test for Covid-19.

Shares in Omega Diagnostics (ODX) soared after it won regulatory approval to manufacture its antibody, which can reveal whether someone previously exposed to the virus has built up some immunity to it. It has the potential to produce up to 46,000 tests a day.

Having started April at 7.63p they closed at 60.5p on Monday and have traded at around 55p since.

The AIM-quoted company has entered into an agreement to produce the laboratory test, developed by Mologic, which last week received independent validation by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and St George’s, University of London. Ongoing validations are being performed by Public Health England, NHS Scotland and the Republic of Ireland, but Omega announced the test is now CE-marked, confirming it adheres to EU safety guidelines.

Seneca announced on Monday evening that after selling more shares on the latest rise, the Growth Capital VCT’s pool of ordinary shares had booked a £328,000 profit from the sale of 1.7m Omega shares, adding 18.1% to its net asset value (NAV) in just a week to leave it with 35.8p NAV per ordinary share. It retains 600,000 shares in Omega, one of two quoted stocks in the largely unquoted portfolio, whose position in the VCT was valued at £321,000 at the end of last year.

Since 18 February when the pandemic broke and markets fell, the VCT shares jumped 41% from 22p to 31p, though they have settled back today, down 1.5p or 4.9% at 29.5p.

This is a turnaround for the VCT whose performance last year was weighed down by a large investment in Scancell, an AIM-listed biotechnology company developing vaccines to target various types of cancer.

Separately, on 9 April Omega partnered with three other companies and Oxford University to jointly develop and manufacture a Covid-19 antibody test, in order to determine whether people have developed immunity after contracting the virus, which can be used at home. This will be manufactured at Omega’s facility in Alva, Scotland. The news has been another factor in Omega’s rising share price this month, to levels closer to when it listed on AIM in 2006."

[rivaldo] 27/4/2020 15:41

Indeed - it can only have been for liquidity reasons, as it was surely obvious (at least it was to me!) that ODX were going to continue rising.

SCLP seems somewhat range-bound, but if its COVID-19 involvement grabs people then things could get a lot more interesting here.

Arecor in particular seems also to be doing very well. The only pity is I can't see any COVID-19 involvement from the other investee companies except ODX and SCLP. At least, not yet!

[jonesy100] 27/4/2020 15:08

Yep. Shame they sold half their of ODX holding last week!

[rivaldo] 27/4/2020 14:47

Looks like some have cottoned on to HYG's investments in ODX and SCLP....

[stupidboypike] 13/2/2020 10:11

The hits keep on coming at Arecor!!!

hxxp://arecor.com/news/

Best regards SBP

[rivaldo] 07/2/2020 10:19

Good to see a little interest here recently. SCLP seem to be building up a bit of steam, and I can see very good things happening soon at ODX.

I've updated the thread header for the most recent NAV, including a link to the Freehand Surgical news section, which is quite impressive (take a look at the Twitter news feed).

[timbo003] 09/1/2020 09:59

Thanks Rivaldo

There is also a bit on this on ProactiveInvestor, who cover Arecor. See also the December interview with CEO Sarah Howell (link in article below)



Arecor are also in a couple of the Oxford Tech VCTs and the Albion VCTs portfolios, hence my interest

[jonesy100] 09/1/2020 08:43

Thanks for posting Rivaldo. On current SCLP share price, I reckon HYG is still at a 30%+ discount to NAV so once this factors in, that should make it even better

[rivaldo] 09/1/2020 08:17

Huge news just announced for Arecor, in which HYG's investment was most recently valued at £205k:



"HIKMA AND ARECOR ANNOUNCE EXCLUSIVE AGREEMENT TO DEVELOP AND COMMERCIALISE READY-TO-USE MEDICINE USING ARESTAT™ TECHNOLOGY

Product designed to provide safer, more immediate treatment option for patients

London and Cambridge, January 9, 2020 - Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (Hikma, Group / LSE: HIK / NASDAQ Dubai: HIK / OTC: HKMPY) (rated Ba1/stable Moody's and BB+/positive S&P), the multinational generic pharmaceutical company, and Arecor Ltd, the biopharmaceutical company advancing today's therapies to enable healthier lives, today announce they have entered into an exclusive agreement to co-develop a new, ready-to-use injectable medicine in the US through Hikma's affiliate, Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.

The product, which will be announced prior to launch, is being developed using Arecor's proprietary drug formulation technology platform Arestat™, which enhances the properties of approved therapeutic proteins and peptides to deliver new reformulations of existing, complex products. Hikma will seek approval for the product under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway, with filing expected in 2021.

"We are pleased to enter into this partnership with Arecor. This is another important step forward for Hikma in developing and commercialising complex medicines and delivery systems that benefit patients and position our business for continued long-term growth," said Riad Mishlawi, President, Hikma Injectables. "We are confident that Arecor's state-of-the-art development platform, combined with Hikma's strong manufacturing capabilities and excellent commercial team, with its broad relationships across US hospital systems, will bring an important new treatment option to patients and healthcare providers."

"We are proud to be working with Hikma," said Sarah Howell, Chief Executive Officer of Arecor. "Arecor has an excellent track record in developing ready-to-use (RTU) and ready-to-administer (RTA) medicines, which are becoming increasingly important to enable fast, safe and effective treatment of patients. Hikma has a strong and respected US hospital market presence and is focused on providing cost effective therapies which improve patient care and advance the delivery of medication. We look forward to the joint development of this first product as part of a broad collaboration with Hikma."

Under the terms of the royalty-based agreement, Arecor will receive an upfront payment and further payments on the achievement of development, regulatory and commercial milestones. Hikma will be responsible for the manufacture and commercialisation of the product. Arecor retains the right to develop and commercialise the product in certain markets outside the US."

[rivaldo] 19/9/2019 16:26

Good to see both Arecor and ImmBio progressing according to the Oxford Tech VCT results out this morning:



"Arecor and ImmBio are both about 20% of the portfolio. Arecor have started dosing in their Phase 1 clinical trial of rapid action insulin. They have also signed multiple development agreements to develop room temperature liquid formulations with global pharma companies.

In March, OT2 invested £8,230 in ImmBio. This investment enables ImmBio to go through the process of technology transfer of PnuBioVax vaccine strains to the Chinese National Biotech Company as required by the license agreement. Discussions are also ongoing with pharma companies in other regions of the world."

[rivaldo] 10/7/2019 14:09

A report on the Oxford Tech VCT's AGMs last month includes this section on Arecor and Immbio (thx to Tim Grattan):



"Arecor (OT2, OT3 and OT4)



Sarah Howell (CEO) gave the presentation for Arecor, see link below for slide deck:

Sarah also gave a presentation at the 2017 Oxford VCT AGMs (link to 2017 notes ), so it was interesting to learn about the progress in the last two years.

Since the 2017 the company has managed to secure funding from three new VCT/EIS institutional investors (Albion, Downing and Calculus) and they have continued with their two main business activities: 1) Formulation work for big pharma charged as fee for service (plus milestone payments/royalties if work leads to product launch) 2) In house development of improved products to treat type I diabetics.

There has been a switch in emphasis in the last two years from developing stable liquid glucagon solutions suitable for parenteral administration, to developing improved stable insulin formulations for parenteral administration, the reasons for this are entirely commercial. Arecor now have main two products in development, the first is a faster acting formulation, which avoids the time lag for onset of action which is seen with conventional formulations. The second development product is 10X more concentrated than conventional formulations (but still acts reasonably rapidly), making it suitable for administration via an insulin pump and especially suitable for children who use insulin pumps. The commercial potential for such products is estimated to be substantial, for example, Eli Lilly have successfully developed one product (Humulin) which is 5X more concentrated than standard and this commands annual sales of $1.2Bn. One direct competitor (Adocia) recently signed a deal with Lilly worth over $500m in upfront payments and milestones plus royalties, the deal eventually fell through but not before they had collected substantial milestone payments, furthermore, they have now re-licenced their product to a Chinese company in a regional deal (China only) worth $130m in milestones plus double digit royalties. Another competitor (Thermalin) recently signed a deal with Sanofi worth over $700m in milestones plus double digit royalties.

I spoke to Sarah after the meeting to ask about the status of the glucagon product, I was told that it is still going, but it is now assigned a lower priority and it is currently being funded by grants. I also asked about the technical difficulties encountered when producing the more concentrated formula for insulin. Apparently the main problem is not a solubility or viscosity issue, but one of bioavailability at the site of action and this is related to the degree of binding of the zinc at the centre of the insulin hexamer.



Immbio (OT2, OT3, OT4)



Andrea Mica gave the presentation on behalf of the company, see link to presentation slide deck below



ImmBio previously presented at the 2017 Oxford VCT AGMs (link to 2017 notes ) so this was a timely update.

Earlier this year Immbio signed a multi-million licensing deal with the largest Chinese Vaccine Pharma company, CNBGSinopharm, for co-development and commercialization in China of ImmBio’s lead product PnuBioVax which is a vaccine to treat pneumococcal infections, a major cause of mortality in the young and elderly (1.6M deaths worldwide per annum),

Current pneumococcal vaccines are relatively expensive and they are becoming less effective as different strains emerge, this problem is being exacerbated as antibiotic resistance becomes more prevalent (25% cases of all pneumonia now show antibiotic resistance).

Immbio’s vaccines (including PnuBioVax) have a novel mechanism of action: they protect against pathogens by mimicking the natural immune response to infection by utilising heat shock proteins. These vaccines should be active against all stains of the targeted pathogen (not just some) and they should be relatively cheap to produce. The lead product PnuBioVax has completed Phase I studies and preparations are underway for a Phase II study in elderly patients. Immbio are intending to raise £4.5m to fund the Phase II study, although this figure would be reduced if they sign further regional licencing deals for PnuBioVax."

[rivaldo] 29/4/2019 14:47

Results are out today (not shown above for some reason), with a 65.1p per share NAV.

More importantly, following the 10p dividend paid in January, HYG plan to declare another 18p dividend next month:



NAV progress will be dependent as usual on SCLP and ODX in the listed arena, whilst OR Productivity seems to be progressing OK in the unlisteds on a £0.7m valuation.

[jonesy100] 09/1/2019 16:23

Sorry I should have been clearer. The discount is disappearing so once 10p is paid, this will trade at a premium to NAV won't it? If so, I can't see that justified by SCLP or other performance. That said, I am very long here if continually disappointed by Scancell

[rivaldo] 09/1/2019 12:47

Of course the price will either multi-bag if SCLP does well or will fall if not.

But I'm also confident that ODX will do well over time. And there's also a large investment in OR Productivity, plus Arecor seems to be doing pretty well.

Plus HYG now have a large cash pile to support the share price and to invest in new ventures or support existing investments.

[jonesy100] 09/1/2019 11:31

Thanks. For some reason was not showing up on my feed service. I am surprised people are chasing this for the divi. If Nav low 60s including Hallmarq, the price will adjust fast unless Scancell delivers. Or am I wrong?