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Syncona Ltd on Thursday said net assets increased in the first half of its financial year, as it outlined plans to grow its net assets to £5 billion within the next 10 years.
The London-based healthcare and life science investor said net assets totalled £1.37 billion on September 30, up from £1.31 billion on March 31. Net assets per share increase to 202.9 pence from 194.4 pence.
Syncona said it aims to meet its 10-year growth target by increasing the rate of new Syncona-founded companies to three per year, expanding its portfolio to between 20 and 25 companies and by delivering top-quartile life science portfolio returns.
Syncona also announced that Chief Investment Officer Chris Hollowood will be promoted to chief executive officer of its investment manager, Syncona Investment Management Ltd, while current SIML CEO & Chair Martin Murphy, who also is Syncona's co-founder, will become chair only. The changes will take effect on January 1.
Hollowood will lead the day-to-day management of the business, while both Hollowood and Murphy will manage portfolio companies.
"What Syncona has achieved over the last 10 years since Martin co-founded the business with the Wellcome Trust, has been truly remarkable," said Syncona Ltd Chair Melanie Gee, adding: "Looking ahead, we believe that the changes outlined today have the potential to increase the impact Syncona's portfolio companies have on patients in areas of high unmet medical need."
Syncona said it expects to deploy £150 million to £250 million in capital during financial 2023, both to support existing portfolio companies and to invest in new ones.
In the first half of the year, Syncona swung to a pretax profit of £55.6 million from a loss of £147.9 million a year before.
"Over the six-month period, whilst our listed holdings have continued primarily to be impacted by market conditions, this has been outweighed by the positive impact of foreign exchange movements across our diversified portfolio and capital pool, with net assets increasing by 4.3%," said Hollowood.
Shares in Syncona were up 1.5% to 175.40 pence in London on Thursday morning.
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