Syncona Share Discussion Threads

[tiger blue] 17/11/2022 10:19

Just listened in on the results presentation, very ambitious targets to grow nav to £5bn over next 10 years from current £1.2bn. Biotech has been and remains a horrible sector for momentum at the moment, but as a tuckaway these look cheap and sentiment alone has been a big driver of the share price. This touched 300p when assets were 215-220p, assets now 203p and shares 175p - with that discount and their ability to incubate companies from interesting science to product development/sale I have added another 25k today.

[chc15] 16/11/2022 18:35

Lol anyway back to sync..drop on no news?

[blackhorse23] 16/11/2022 15:53

Bought CURY ( LSE) today , excellent value & growth stocks

[chc15] 16/11/2022 14:22

Down 8%, any ideas why..

[chc15] 16/8/2022 09:54

Slight nav rise, seems ok..

[rambutan2] 16/6/2022 15:06

Finals out, all in all, quite good:

The second half of CY2021 was marked by significant volatility across equity markets globally. This uncertainty has carried on into 2022, compounded by concerns around inflation, interest rates and Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing humanitarian crisis. This has impacted investor sentiment towards risk assets. We have seen a macro rotation away from growth stocks, impacting both valuations and financings of biotech companies, especially smaller, earlier stage companies. As market volatility has increased, the Syncona team continues to carefully review the requirements of each of our portfolio companies and our capital pool to ensure that our Company is well positioned to navigate continuing challenging markets. Our balance sheet provides us with a strategic advantage, and the team's expertise and rigorous approach to risk management means we continue to take a disciplined approach to capital allocation across a well-funded portfolio and exciting pipeline.

Syncona ended the year with net assets of GBP1,309.8 million or 194.4p per share, a 0.3 per cent return in the year (31 March 2021: net assets of GBP1,300.3 million, NAV per share of 193.9p, 4.4 per cent return), despite the wider market backdrop for life science companies, which saw the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index decline 12 per cent during the period. The significant NAV uplift achieved through the sale of Gyroscope to Novartis and multiple successful private financings offset the decline in share prices of our three listed companies, Autolus, Freeline and Achilles. We recognise that the performance of these listed companies has been disappointing for our shareholders. Our team have worked closely with portfolio company management teams to support them as they continue to execute their development plans. Similarly, the challenging market conditions have also impacted Syncona's share price performance in the financial year, which has been disappointing. Whilst the market environment for early stage biotech companies continues to be challenging, our listed companies are funded to deliver clinical data which represent key milestones for their businesses, and we believe Syncona is well positioned to deliver growth over the long term.

[chc15] 06/6/2022 08:39

Nice rise, must be a big buyer in mkt..

[rambutan2] 28/4/2022 19:24

And to balance things out:

Syncona Ltd, a leading healthcare company focused on founding, building and funding global leaders in life science, today announces that it has committed GBP15 million in an oversubscribed GBP75.5 million Series B financing in OMass Therapeutics ("OMass"), a biotechnology company that identifies medicines against highly validated target ecosystems. Syncona was a co-investor in this financing round, which was led by new investors GV, Northpond and Sanofi Ventures. Existing investors Oxford Science Enterprises and Oxford University also joined the round.

OMass, an Oxford University spin out, is developing small molecule drugs to treat rare diseases and immunological conditions. The company has a unique approach to the way it finds new medicines. It uses its proprietary drug discovery platform, OdyssION(TM), to more accurately interrogate the target and how it interacts with its native ecosystem. These observations provide potentially critical information that can increase the chances of finding highly effective small molecule medicines that will be successful in clinical trials.

This latest financing brings the total amount that OMass has raised to GBP119 million. These proceeds will be used to advance OMass' small molecule portfolio towards clinical trials. This includes progressing the development of small molecule drugs to treat Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, Inflammatory Bowel Disease and other inflammatory and rare diseases.

Following the Series B financing, Syncona has revalued its existing investment which has resulted in a 32% uplift in the value of its stake in OMass. Including the drawdown of the first tranche of Syncona's Series B investment of GBP15 million, Syncona's holding value of OMass is now GBP44 million. On drawdown of the full Series B financing, Syncona's ownership stake in OMass will be 31 per cent.

Edward Hodgkin, Chair of OMass and Partner at Syncona said: "We are pleased with this financing round which will support OMass as it looks to progress its pipeline of small molecule drugs. The strength of this global group of top tier life science investors reflects confidence in the company's technology and supports our ambition to build a sustainable therapeutics business that has the potential to develop novel drugs in areas of high unmet medical need . This financing represents a further validation of the ability of Syncona's portfolio companies to attract high quality syndicates, to fund them over the long-term."

[rambutan2] 28/4/2022 19:22

Noted, from endpt.com today:

Last Friday, SwanBio Therapeutics laid off about one-quarter of its 60-person workforce, a person with knowledge of the matter told Endpoints News.

The gene therapy biotech was unable to secure an additional round of financing in the first quarter after investors backed out of the round, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. It’s been 24 months since the Philadelphia-area biotech disclosed it had expanded its Series A to bring total financing to $77 million.

So, like dozens of other biotechs in recent months, SwanBio convened a hybrid meeting on April 22 to let the affected employees know.

Just three days prior, the startup said it would be the first to test an AAV gene therapy for patients with adrenomyeloneuropathy. A Phase I/II clinical trial is slated for the second half of this year, the biotech said April 19. The investigational therapy, dubbed SBT101, has received fast track and orphan drug designations from the FDA in recent months.

A SwanBio spokesperson declined to comment on the layoffs and financing, noting as a private company, the biotech is "intentional about how and when we disclose information."

[chc15] 19/4/2022 17:21

Another shocking day, i wonder how much money Sarsin and Waverton are losing here for their clients. I topped up today, but will be dumping on any profit..

[chc15] 08/4/2022 11:31

Had a small nibble here again, think it's been battered too much, we'll see.

[tiger blue] 05/4/2022 09:00

Bought some more this morning after Martin Murphy's purchase, which I see as quite significant. Sentiment has been horrible in biotech generally and SYNC, but the shares are demonstrably cheap given the discount to nav, which is not a comment one could have made during their previous range, as nav was never much above 225p even when the shares traded at 300p. There was a lot of hope and expectation built in then, now pessimism rules, so time to buy. Share trading volume has been picking up recently and Waverton and Sarasin appearing on the register is encouraging.

[1seanshare] 31/3/2022 10:47

Seems very strange - what is causing the downward pressure?

[chc15] 31/3/2022 10:16

Back to 2017 levels here, what's going on, tempted to buy and dump again.

[markr5] 09/3/2022 16:58

09/03/22 Robert Hutchinson (Non-Exec director) has just purchased 26000 shares @ £1.71 p/s

04/03/22 Sarasin & Partners have increased their holding from 5% to 6%

[markr5] 02/3/2022 18:30

Hi Tiger Blue, thank you very much for the info. I'll take a look at BB Healthcare and SONG soon. I have considered Caledonia, but i seem more inclined towards RIT Capital (RCP) if i had to choose right now, out of the two that i narrowed it down to, within the AIC 'Flexible' sector. That said, there doesn't seem much to choose between them; they have both performed very well indeed over the long term, and appear well balanced. I'm taking a look at HarbourVest Global Equity (HVPE) and NB Private Equity partners (NBPE) at present, in case the market takes another big tumble/continues on down for a while.

[tiger blue] 02/3/2022 17:17

Hi markr5, PE sector not my strong point, I have long term position in Caledonia but they only have PE alongside quoted stuff. I am primarily interested in inflation protection and inflation linked income and biggest holdings are in the CG Asset Mgmt Funds, Greencoat UK Wind, Smithson and BB Healthcare. I think healthcare is a great long term sector, BB traditionally trades at a small premium but currently 5% discount, the managers are excellent and their monthly factsheet has a great commentary - they were my go to for sensible views on Covid during the height of that. Only recent contrarian purchase was Hipgnosis Songs (SONG) which has gone to a nice discount and 5% yield after the Neil Young/Spotify spat, which actually increased his streaming elsewhere. Ongoing attempts to increase writers share of the pot would also help them if successful.

[markr5] 02/3/2022 16:05

Hi Tiger Blue, it looks like we may have bought at just the right time! Perhaps it was Peel Hunt (Thanks for this info) highlighting the discount that helped today's share price increase. It is reassuring to know that you have met with the company several times. I'm only a small private investor, and still learning, but I am drawn to the contrarian approach, in general.It's great to have some experienced company. Are there any others that are out of favour that you are considering at present? Although it appears to be a contradiction to the contrarian approach, I am contemplating researching the Private equity sector Investment trusts next, as i think they will continue to do well into the future (I'm looking for some long-term buy and holds for my SIPP).

[tiger blue] 02/3/2022 12:00

Thanks markr5, good to have some company on board. Peel Hunt have also highlighted the discount according to Citywire last night. I met the company about a dozen times when I was a broker (now retired) from when it launched originally as BACIT at 100p, so knew them very well. It usually pays long term unless you're buying duds to get involved when things are out of favour, after all if everyone is bullish there's no one left to convince! Fund managers usually also follow the herd, however much they like to state otherwise. Off topic but I remember two meetings with the venerable Bruce Stout who runs Murray International Trust. At the first the trust was trading expensively on a premium and we had over 20 people round the table. At the second we could only muster 3 people which was embarrassing, and the trust was on a big discount. That turned out to be very close to the low point, and there was a double uplift from the asset value rising and the discount narrowing.

[markr5] 01/3/2022 16:31

I've just bought in too as i consider this is good value and may be turning a corner. The chart does not say it will do though! If it breaks 160 then it may fall to 130. I've taken a risk though, as like you say Tiger Blue, it's not easy buying anything at the moment. Thank you for your post and your NAV assessment. It was very helpful

[tiger blue] 01/3/2022 13:29

Back in today at 167.5, having sold out of my remaining shares at 225 when the Gyroscope NASDAQ float was pulled. Since then Gyroscope has of course been sold but the share price has still tanked. I have recalculated nav based on the quoted movements since the last valuation date (dec 31), and make it c. 192.4p. SYNC has traded at a premium to nav in excess of 40% in the past. That looked frothy but I do feel that given their ability to create value the shares now look cheap on a discount of 12%. Autolus/Freeline/Achilles have all been grim on NASDAQ but the trio now only represent less than 7.5% of the nav so cannot do much more damage, and one or more could possibly spring a surprise. One big unknown is the future milestone payments due from Gyroscope, which may be up to £249.4 million, but which are discounted for risk/time etc by Syncona to a current value of £47.5m, which looks a conservative approach. Hard buying anything in these markets, but you have to dip a toe in sometimes!

[km18] 16/2/2022 11:59

Syncona Ltd is a closed-ended investment healthcare company which focuses on investing in and building global leaders in life science. The Company operates in two segments: life science portfolio and fund investments. The Company’s portfolio is made up of a small group of healthcare companies. The Company intends to achieve the investment objective through investments in long-only funds, hedge funds, private equity funds, infrastructure funds, credit and fixed income and real estate funds. These plausible investment initiatives were effectively incorporated into the firm’s Net Asset value, which in turn grew by 16% from £1,552.8m to £1,339.7m. Subsequently, the Life science portfolio is currently valued at £843.2 million higher than the £617.9 million derived in 2020, hence yielding a return on investment of 29.5%.



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[chc15] 01/2/2022 14:55

Out for a nice profit, must have been a big seller in the mkt..

[chc15] 27/1/2022 10:07

Having a small nibble here on each big drop, will dump if goes back to 2.