Chrysalis Investments has seen a boost to its net asset value between the first and second quarter on the back of Wise’s IPO and material funding rounds for two of its top holdings.
At the end of June, the trust’s NAV per ordinary share came in at 233.93 pence, a 13.5% increase compared to the first quarter and a 29.4% increase for 2021.
Returns were chiefly driven by a further funding round from Swedish buy now pay later firm Klarna and the successful IPO of digital payments app Wise, both of which had been previously flagged.
Klarna raised $639m in June at a valuation of $45bn pre-new money, up substantially from a post-new money price tag of $31bn at the end of March.
Meanwhile, Chrysalis’ carrying value of Wise at 511p at the end of Q1 was revised upward to 800p, reflecting the fintech firm’s closing auction price at IPO. Shares are currently trading at 997p.
Additionally, the trust benefitted from You and Mrs Jones being written up over the quarter.
‘Another strong NAV from Chrysalis’
While the upward revisions had been expected, Numis hailed the result as “another strong NAV from Chrysalis”.
However, new information came in the form of the trust’s cash position which was revealed as £51m.
As a result of the excess cash coupled with the trust’s revolving credit facility and future proceeds from its sale of Embark Numis expects the trust’s “near-term pipeline to be funded”.
“Our current estimate is 235.8p, factoring in the share price of Wise (currently 994p vs 800p carrying value), THG and Revolution Beauty, FX and fees, equivalent to a 6% premium to the share price as of yesterday’s close,” it said in an analyst note.
Chrysalis managers Richard Watts (pictured left) and Nick Williamson (pictured right) have been busy putting the £300m raised from their oversubscribed placing in March to work.
Earlier this year Chrysalis managers Richard Watts raised £300m in an oversubscribed placing to take advantage of a pipeline of £250m worth of follow-on opportunities and £1bn of new investment opportunities.
Since then, they have poured £80m into follow-ons, including £19m into the Hut Group, €30m into Wefox and £35m into Starling Bank.
They have also initiated brand new holdings like Smart Pension in June and Deep Instinct and Revolution Beauty in July. In August they have made investments in Infosum and Tactus.
The portfolio currently has 17 holdings but after the sale of Embark and liquidation of its position in Growth Street this will go back down to the bottom end of the 15-20 target range of holdings.
Chrysalis Investments portfolio holdings
| Portfolio Company | % of investment portfolio |
| Klarna | 25.3% |
| Starling Bank | 10.8% |
| Wefox | 7.8% |
| THG | 7.5% |
| Wise | 5.7% |
| Smart Pension | 5.4% |
| You & Mr Jones | 5% |
| Graphcore | 4.9% |
| Embark | 4.7% |
| Deep Instinct | 3.4% |
| Revolution Beauty | 3.2% |
| Featurespace | 2.7% |
| Secret Escapes | 2.3% |
| Sorted | 1.2% |
| Growth Street | 0.1% |
| Cash | 3.7% |
