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Allied Minds claims progress, though portfolio value declines
Intellectual property commercialisation firm Allied Minds narrowed losses in its most recent trading year, boosted by rising revenues reductions in its financing costs.
The estimated value of the company's portfolio of subsidiaries was valued at $395.6m as of 22 March, down from $416.2m on 24 April 2017.
The 'top six' subsidiaries are optical communication network developer BridgeSat; Federated Wireless, which is developing scalable wireless infrastructure solutions to extend the access of carrier networks; HawkEye360, which is developing technology to use satellites for affordable activity based information; Precision Biopsy, developing a medical device better identify suspicious prostate tissue; drug discovery company SciFluor; and Spin Transfer Technologies, which is trying to develop better computer memory.
The US-focussed group saw pre-tax losses drop 13.2% to $111m in 2017 thanks to a 57.5% finance cost reduction to $6.5m and an 11.4% reining-in of research and development costs to $49m. Allied Minds nearly doubled its total revenue for the year to $5m from the $2.7m it posted in 2016, principally due to higher non-recurring engineering revenue at Federated Wireless and HawkEye360.
The firm, which made net cash investments of $169.1m towards its portfolio throughout the period, with an aggregate $81.1m invested into new and existing subsidiary businesses.
Almost a year ago, Allied Minds decided to restructure the business in order and reallocate capital and management resources across its portfolio, writing down the value of seven invested businesses by $146m write-down in last year's full year results, in order to accelerate commercialisation.
President and chief executive Jill Smith, who led the restructuring process, said, "We are pleased with the progress made in 2017 in terms of both the performance and focus of the portfolio and the steps taken to ensure a higher level of discipline in how we allocate capital and operate our subsidiaries. We have secured co-investment from brand name strategic investors, strengthened our leadership teams and their accountability, and focused our origination efforts on specific areas of competitive advantage."
"2018 will be another important year in which we expect to meet several key milestones. We believe the company is well positioned to realize returns for our shareholders," she added.
As of 1200 GMT, shares had slipped 2.22% to 11.00p.