News blog
Evolve Capital
- BY: Andrew Hore |
- POSTED: 30/06/2010 |
Evolve Capital, the investment company that owns a majority stake in Aim adviser Astaire, wants to raise £1m from an open offer in order to take advantage of investment opportunities on Plus-quoted.
Details of the open offer have not been announced but Evolve revealed its intention while reporting a loss of £2.6m for 2009. However, that loss is due to Astaire.
Evolve’s balance sheet is difficult to assess because Astaire is consolidated due to Evolve’s 53.6% stake. There is £7.9m in cash on the Evolve balance sheet but as Astaire has £7.81m of cash in its balance sheet it appears that Evolve has hardly any cash. In the notes Evolve admits that it is currently utilising its £200,000 overdraft facility.
Evolve intends to raise £250,000 by selling 275,000 shares in unquoted credit and debit cards software developer Aconite Technology to Elderstreet. Added to the £1m this will provide a significant sum to invest in Plus-quoted companies plus some working capital for the business.
Chairman Oliver Vaughan says that the outlook for smaller companies is uncertain and Evolve is reducing its cost base.
Evolve owns St Helen’s Capital, which is the biggest Plus-quoted corporate adviser. This business made a small profit on revenues of £199,000. Evolve also owns 19.9% of Plus-quoted investment manager Bluehone.
There was no further news about what is going to happen to Astaire. Evolve is now an arms length investor in Astaire, which continues to lose money.
Evolve’s NAV was 7.68p a share at the end of 2009. At 1.5p a share, down 0.25p, Evolve is valued at £2.67m. The stake in Astaire (at 1p a share) is worth just over £1m.
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