Disposal

RNS Number : 1234N

Spark Ventures PLC

04 June 2010

 



SPARK Ventures to realise its investment in Complinet

4 June 2010 - SPARK Ventures plc ("SPARK") today announced that Complinet, one of SPARK's investee companies and a leading online provider of connected risk and compliance solutions to the global financial services community, will be acquired by Thomson Reuters.  The transaction is expected to close this quarter and SPARK is expected to receive proceeds of £3.1m in cash and represents a realisation at two times the current book value of the asset.

SPARK invested a total of £1.57 million in Complinet in January 2007 and June 2007. In April 2008 SPARK realised part of its original investment and received proceeds of £0.3m, the sale of its remaining stake will take the total proceeds received to £3.4m. SPARK is expected to make a 2.2x return on the investment with an IRR of 31%.  

Jay Patel, Director of SPARK said "the investment objective had been to invest in a mature growing business which had strategic value and the successful trade sale to a leading global publisher has demonstrated the success of that strategy".

SPARK returned 2p per share (£8.2m) of surplus cash to shareholders in 2009 and resolved to progressively realise its entire venture capital portfolio over the period to March 2014 and return the proceeds to shareholders. The proceeds from this latest realisation will, for the time being, be retained on SPARK's balance sheet, but will be returned to shareholders in due course.

SPARK continues to believe that the current book value of its venture portfolio is conservative, and that it is strongly in shareholders' interests to realise these investments, which include stakes in a number of rapidly growing, profitable and valuable businesses, over time as opportunities arise to maximise the potential value of the portfolio.  The Board expects that, in due course, the sale proceeds from such a strategy are likely to exceed substantially the proceeds that would result from a sale of the entire portfolio at its current book value.

For further information, please contact:

Jay Patel

SPARK Ventures
Tel: [phone]

Stewart Wallace
Collins Stewart
Tel: [phone]

About SPARK Ventures:
SPARK Ventures is a leading quoted venture capital company with investments in the technology, media and telecom sectors.

During the last five years Spark has sold several businesses to blue-chip trade buyers, in transactions worth over £280m, realising over £55m of cash. These trade buyers have included The Financial Times (Mergermarket), Qualcomm (Elata), Experian (Footfall), Ominiture (Touch Clarity), Ramboll (IMISoft), Valueclick (Pricerunner), and France Telecom (Unanimis).

 

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