Syncona Ltd, (“Syncona”), a leading healthcare company focused on founding, building and funding a portfolio of global leaders in life science, today announces its Final Results for the year ended 31 March 2022.
Martin Murphy, CEO and Chair, Syncona Investment Management Limited, said: “This year marks an important milestone for Syncona, a decade since it was founded. I am proud of our achievements over the last 10 years, which have validated the vision we set out in 2012, to build globally leading life science companies that have the potential to deliver transformational outcomes for patients.
Whilst we have seen underperformance across our listed holdings in this financial year and macroeconomic headwinds have impacted sentiment in the biotech sector, our model has continued to deliver notable successes in the period. We have worked closely with our companies to continue to drive progress, investing at scale into the portfolio and generating valuation uplifts across our privately held companies. Our companies raised more than $700 million across seven financings during the financial year, ensuring they are well funded to deliver on key upcoming milestones. We also executed our largest transaction to date, the sale of Gyroscope to Novartis for up to $1.5 billion including milestones. Our strengthened balance sheet is an important competitive advantage, particularly in challenging market conditions, and will allow us to continue to pursue new investment opportunities, whilst supporting our existing portfolio companies as they scale.
The future for the life science industry in the UK and across Europe is exciting and our platform is well-placed to capture the significant opportunity ahead.”
Key highlights:
- Net assets of £1,309.8 million (31 March 2021: £1,300.3 million); 194.4p[1] per share (31 March 2021: 193.9p per share), a NAV total return of 0.3 per cent (31 March 2021: 4.4 per cent)
- The sale of Gyroscope Therapeutics (Gyroscope) and valuation write ups from Series B financings of Quell Therapeutics (Quell), Anaveon and OMass Therapeutics (OMass) drive £274.8 million (41p per share) valuation uplift
- Performance offset by decline in share prices of our listed portfolio companies Autolus Therapeutics (Autolus), Achilles Therapeutics (Achilles) and Freeline Therapeutics (Freeline) in a period of significant market volatility, with the value of these holdings reducing by £278.5 million
- Life science portfolio, valued at £524.9 million (31 March 2021: £722.1 million), a 0.8 per cent return (31 March 2021: 11.8 per cent return); delivering a return in challenging market conditions for biotech[2]
- Strengthened capital base of £784.9 million at 31 March 2022 (31 March 2021: £578.2 million) following sale of Gyroscope to Novartis
- Deployed £123.2 million of capital in the year (31 March 2021: £189.2 million)
- Sold Gyroscope for up to $1.5 billion, demonstrating a growing track record of success. The transaction is Syncona's largest transaction to date and the UK's fourth largest biotech exit; builds on successful track record with the three sales from Syncona's portfolio generating returns of >£930 million, an aggregate 4.6 multiple on invested capital[3]
- Multiple financings across the portfolio at valuation uplifts, with $712.2 million of capital raised in the financial year; $585.8 million (£434.1 million) raised from global institutional investors and companies, with $126.4 million (£97.7 million) committed by Syncona
- Positive clinical progress with 12 clinical data read-outs during the year, and the portfolio expected to move to seven clinical stage companies in the next 12 months with Quell, SwanBio and Neogene set to enter the clinic
- Next generation cell therapy company, Clade Therapeutics, added to the portfolio, with Syncona excited by the diverse opportunities for new investment that we continue to see across therapeutic and domain areas
- Strengthening of the Syncona platform, with key hires across the senior leadership and investment teams during the year
Management will be holding a presentation followed by a question and answer session which begins at 9am this morning. To register for the webcast, and to see the full release, please click this link.
[1] Fully diluted
[2] Life science portfolio return takes into consideration upfront cash proceeds of £325.8m from the sale of Gyroscope to Novartis, as well as the £49.8m valuation of the discounted risk-adjusted milestone payments
[3] Includes sales of Blue Earth, Nightstar and Gyroscope, reflects original Syncona Partners capital invested where applicable. Includes upfront proceeds from sale of Gyroscope. All IRR and multiple on cost figures are calculated on a gross basis