Crown Place VCT PLC : Interim Management Statement

Crown Place VCT PLC
Interim Management Statement
LEI Code: 213800SYIQPA3L3T1Q68

Introduction
I am pleased to present Crown Place VCT PLC’s interim management statement for the period from 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2022.

Performance and dividends
The Company’s unaudited net asset value (NAV) as at 31 March 2022 was £86.0 million or 33.71 pence per share (excluding treasury shares). After accounting for a dividend of 0.84 pence per share which was paid on 31 March 2022 to shareholders on the register on 11 March 2022 the NAV has increased by 0.79 pence per share (2.4 per cent.) since 31 December 2021.

Fundraising and share issues
During the period from 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2022, the Company issued the following new Ordinary shares of nominal value 1 penny per share under the Albion VCTs Prospectus Top Up Offers 2021/22:

Date	Number of shares issued	Issue price per share (including costs of issue)	Net proceeds £’000
25 February 2022	30,665,580	34.30p to 34.70p	10,374
31 March 2022	1,838,353	33.80p	606

On 2 March 2022, the Company announced that applications under the Prospectus offer had reached its £12 million gross limit and was therefore fully subscribed and closed to further applications.

The Company also issued the following shares under the dividend reinvestment scheme which are included in the net asset value figures for 31 March 2022 above: 

Date	Number of shares issued	Issue price per share	Net invested £’000
31 March 2022	1,137,670	32.92 pence	357

The Company continues to offer a Dividend Reinvestment Scheme to existing shareholders. Details of this Scheme can be found at www.albion.capital/funds/CRWN.

Portfolio
The following investments have been made during the period from 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2022:

New investments	£ ’ 000	Activity
Perchpeek Limited	672	Digital relocation platform
Regulatory Genome Development Limited	116	Provider of machine readable structured regulatory content
Total further investments	788

Further investments	£ ’ 000	Activity
TransFICC Limited	846	A provider of a connectivity solution, connecting financial institutions with trading venues via a single API
Seldon Technologies Limited	615	Software company that enables enterprises to deploy Machine Learning models in production
Cantab Research Limited (T/A Speechmatics)	445	Provider of low footprint automated speech recognition which can be deployed in the cloud, on premise or on device across over 31 languages
Black Swan Data Limited	336	Predictive analytics for consumer brands
Nuvoair Holdings Inc.	152	Digital therapeutics and decentralised clinical trials for respiratory conditions
Koru Kids Limited	83	Online marketplace connecting parents and nannies
Locum's Nest Limited	82	Provides a technology solution for the management of locum doctors for the NHS
Total further investments	2,559

Disposals
The following disposals were made during the period from 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2022:

Portfolio Company	£000s
Credit Kudos Limited	2,352	Disposal of investment on a cost of £0. 5 million realising a gain of £1. 9 million on cost
Phrasee Limited	1,991	Disposal of investment on a cost of £0. 6 million realising a gain of £1. 4 million on cost
MyMeds&Me Limited	1,476	Disposal of investment on a cost of £0 . 5 million realising a gain of £ 1 . 0 million on cost
Total proceeds	5 , 819

Top ten holdings as at 3 1 March 20 2 2 :

Investment	Carrying value £ ’ 000	% of net asset value	Activity
Quantexa Limited	10,119	11.8	Network analytics platform to detect financial crime
Proveca Limited	3,993	4.6	Reformulation of paediatric medicines
Oviva AG	3,634	4.2	T echnology enabled service business in medical nutritional therapy (MNT)
Chonais River Hydro Limited	3,276	3.8	Owner and operator of a 2 MW hydro-power scheme in the Scottish Highlands
Radnor House School (TopCo) Limited	3,145	3.7	Independent school for children aged 2 -18
The Evewell Group Limited	2,415	2.8	Operator and developer of women’s health centres focusing on fertility
Cantab Research Limited (T/A Speechmatics)	1,923	2.2	Provider of low footprint automated speech recognition which can be deployed in the cloud, on premise or on device across 31 languages
Gharagain River Hydro Limited	1,793	2.1	Owner and operator of a 1 MW hydro-power scheme in the Scottish Highlands
Elliptic Enterprises Limited	1,529	1.8	Provider of Anti Money Laundering services to digital asset institutions
Black Swan Data Limited	1,355	1.6	Predictive analytics for consumer brands

Share buy-backs
During the period from 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2022, the Company purchased 2,022,762 shares for £636,000 including stamp duty, at an average price of 31.27 pence per share. All of the shares are to be held in treasury.

It remains the Board’s policy to buy back shares in the market, subject to the overall constraint that such purchases are in the Company’s interest, including the maintenance of sufficient resources for investment in existing and new portfolio companies and the continued payment of dividends to shareholders.

It is the Board’s intention for such buy-backs to be at around a 5 per cent. discount to net asset value, so far as market conditions and liquidity permit.

Material e vents and t ransactions after the period end
After the period end, the Company undertook the following material investment transaction:

• Investment of £532,000 in an existing portfolio company, Gravitee Topco Limited, an open source API management platform.
  
  

The following new Ordinary shares of nominal value 1 penny each were allotted under the Albion VCTs Prospectus Top Up Offers 2021/22 to shareholders who elected for the 2022/23 tax year:

Date	Number of shares issued	Issue price per share (including costs of issue)	Net proceeds £’000
11 April 2022	2,215,278	33.50p to 33.80p	730

There have been no other material events or transactions after the period end to the date of this announcement.

Further information

Further information regarding historic and current financial performance and other useful shareholder information can be found on the Company’s webpage on the Manager’s website at www.albion.capital/funds/CRWN.

Penny Freer, Chairman
[e-mail]
17 May 2022

For further information please contact:
Vikash Hansrani
Operations Partner
Albion Capital Group LLP
Telephone: [phone]