Schroder UK Public Private (SUPP) has ditched its holding in online crowdfunding platform Seedrs following a takeover bid for the former Neil Woodford holding.
In a stock exchange announcement, the £438.8m trust noted Seedrs had entered into an agreement to be acquired by US private investor Republic for $100m (£75m).
SUPP said it had struck a deal to offload its holding in the UK fintech company to a “global institutional investment management firm” for £12m in cash. Managers Tim Creed (pictured) and Roger Doig will use the proceeds to accelerate their portfolio rebalancing, including investments in both public and private companies.
Seedrs is one of many legacy holdings purchased by the trust’s former manager Woodford. The ex-star manager first invested in the crowdfunding firm in 2015 and continued pouring money into the unquoted company in funding rounds over the years.
On the basis of the terms of the sale, the trust’s AIFM has written up its Seedrs holding by 29.7% to £11.8m at the end of September. The unquoted company represented 2.7% of total assets at the end of June when it was worth £9.1m.
The sale is expected to complete in early 2022, ahead of the Republic acquisition.
Last month, Creed and Doig made their third fresh private equity investment since taking over from Woodford, with a £5m stake in market research platform Attest Technologies. The pair has also invested in private cybersecurity company Tessian and financial app Revolut this year.
