Schroder UK Public Private Trust (SUPP) has given its blessing to portfolio holding Oxford Nanopore’s intention to float, but says it will look to sell down some of its 3.7% stake in the biotech firm.
On Thursday Oxford Nanopore filed notice of its intention to float on the London Stock Exchange, having confirmed it would on 9 September. It first announced in March this year its intention to go public in the second half of 2021.
The biotech firm has entered into an agreement with US tech company Oracle Corporation that will see the latter buy £150m of new shares at the IPO. Overall, it is expected to sell £300m of new shares in total as well as stock held by some existing shareholders through a secondary offer.
Oxford Nanopore represented 21.8% of SUPP’s net asset value on 31 March.
A statement from SUPP said: “While the company remains highly confident of Oxford Nanopore’s prospects to realise a strong IPO and generate continuous shareholder value, given the large position of Oxford Nanopore in the company’s portfolio, the company will seek to further diversify its portfolio through a partial realisation of its holding.
“The company will use the proceeds from the partial realisation to invest in existing and new portfolio companies.”
SUPP’s 3.7% stake in Oxford Nanopore was valued at £90.7m as at 31 March 2021, an implied total equity value of £2.5bn.
The update said it is anticipated the company’s AIFM will revalue the holding based on the trading price of Oxford Nanopore’s shares, in line with the other quoted investments in the portfolio. It will release a further update once the pricing of Oxford Nanopore’s IPO has been announced.
See also: Schroders trust unveils second fresh holding since Woodford takeover
Oxford Nanopore is a former favourite of Neil Woodford who held the stock in both his Equity Income fund and Patient Capital trust. The SUPP portfolio, managed by Tim Creed (pictured) and Ben Wicks, inherited the holding when it took over the Patient Capital portfolio after Woodford’s investment empire came crashing down.
The holdings in the open-ended Woodford Equity Income were sold by Link Fund Solutions to Acacia Research last summer during the fund’s wind-up.
Oxford Nanopore raised £195m its last funding round in May, with new investor M&G pumping £35m into the business.
However, its accounts published last month revealed it has failed to turn a profit, recording a pre-tax loss of £73.2m for 2020, following on from a £80.5m loss in 2019.
See also: M&G eyes up pre-IPO market by pumping £35m into Woodford favourite Oxford Nanopore
